Pacquiao vs Bradley: Timothy Bradley Has Ligament Damage in Both Feet

As a follow-up to the earlier reports on Timothy Bradley's injured feet, which he suffered in a controversial split decision win over Manny Pacquiao last Saturday night, the latest news is that the newly-crowned WBO welterweight titlist has ligament damage in both feet, pulled in his left and strained in his right:

"I have pulled ligaments in my left foot, and I've got a severe sprain on my right foot, so I'm in a wheelchair right now and just rolling around. "I'll be getting my cast on Monday for my left foot," said Bradley, who received an MRI of his feet near his home in Palm Spring, Calif.

"I have no idea how long I'll be in it. I've got another appointment on Monday, so they'll be re-evaluating it to see if I'm healing. But that's pretty much it. Everything is good. I'm good. My spirit is good. Can't nothing hold me down."

Bradley (29-0, 12 KO) could be facing Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KO) again in November, if all parties want the rematch and they figure there's enough money in it. The fight did a "disappointing" gate total, but that's as compared to the last two recent smash success events in Vegas (Mayweather vs Cotto and Pacquiao vs Marquez III). Really, it was comparable to all of Manny's other post-Oscar fights in Vegas.

The PPV numbers will be a major factor, too, as well as projecting what the people want to see when time for an actual decision comes.

But on the topic of the injuries, I think you really have to hand it to Tim Bradley fighting as well as he did, no matter how you scored it, with two injuries to his feet. It wasn't even a year ago that we had the David Haye toe debacle, which gave birth to 1,000 bad jokes (OK, really just one, repeatedly), but did also give Dereck Chisora the chance to make an "Ain't Toe Stopping Us Now" shirt recently, which was funny.

Bradley could have folded in this fight with those injuries, and he never did. He was always there to fight Manny. In my view, you have to respect that.

Bradley also says that the canvas itself is to blame for the injuries, and he felt that it was extra soft, to cut down on the ease of movement:

"It was the canvas. It was the texture of the canvas. The texture of the canvas was like a soft, spongy texture. It was not a fast ring at all. It was more of a bouncy ring. It wasn't fast at all. It was a soft ring that slowed me down."

One has to figure if the ring was fashioned that way on purpose, it was to favor Manny and his bad calves. There's no question, I don't think, that Manny doesn't have the legs he used to have. I doubt even any of his greatest cheerleaders would disagree with that. And if they did it, oh well -- I don't see that as any worse than baseball grounds crews over the years fashioning the first and third base line so that bunts by their teams would stay fair or football grounds crews keeping the grass a bit longer or a bit shorter to benefit their team. The ring wasn't illegal or anything, as far as I know, so whatever, but it would help explain the injuries, perhaps.