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Pacquiao vs Bradley III: Joel Diaz breaks down the fight

Timothy Bradley's former trainer Joel Diaz gives his thoughts on Pacquiao-Bradley III.

Timothy Bradley's former trainer Joel Diaz gives his thoughts on Pacquiao-Bradley III.

On how he sees Pacquiao-Bradley III

"I just see the fight playing out like the first two, honestly. I really don't follow much, but the little clips I've watched from Top Rank, and I've watched Teddy, Teddy's doing his job. Obviously. Teddy's there to help Bradley, he's there to make a dollar, and obviously, he wants to impress. But at this point, I can tell you, there's only so much I can do for Ruslan (Provodnikov), and there's only so much he can do for Bradley.

"The little bit I see is, he has his game plan, and what you see in training is different from what you're gonna see in the fight. It's either going to go the distance, Bradley will play it safe and survive the fight, and finish on his feet. Or if he's gonna get a little brave in there and exchange with Manny, he can get hurt. We don't know, because Bradley trains hard. Bradley has a lot of pride, Bradley trains extremely hard. Even when Teddy's not around him, Bradley's training.

"One of the things that I know about Bradley is this: he makes sure that there's no doubt in his mind, that he's not leaving anything behind. But just watching a little bit of the training, he's not snapping his punches, he's tight, he usually has a lot of speed. Basically I saw the same Bradley that came to me the first day, as an amateur.

"It could be good, because he usually has a lot of speed, but his training is more of an amateur style. Throwing a lot of punches, moving angles, here and there. Is it gonna work against Manny Pacquiao? We hope so. I wish Bradley nothing but the best. I know he's gonna come in, put up a fight, like he always does. Bradley just has a big heart, and has big balls to fight.

"Now it depends on Manny Pacquiao, what does he have? Does Manny Pacquiao still have that hunger? Does Manny Pacquiao still have that mentality to go in there and pull the trigger? It's interesting. It's gonna be a great fight for both of them. Manny Pacquiao suffered an injury according to the team and them, everybody knows he suffered a shoulder injury. Is he completely healed? Did his camp go well? Did he have any problems with his shoulder. We don't know.

"Bradley, as well, he came from a good victory with Brandon Rios, but before that, you know, he got caught with one punch from Jessie Vargas, who's a 140-pounder that really didn't have a lot of power, and hurt him. We'll see. We'll see how this fight plays out. But I know it's gonna be a good fight."

On what could make the difference in the fight

"Through my experience, just in the back of my mind, it's, like, Manny Pacquiao was offered Terence Crawford. He didn't take that. He was offered Amir Khan. He didn't take that. And he says, 'OK, I'll take Bradley.' Why, because he's tougher? Or because he feels more comfortable in his last fight against someone he's been in the ring with twice, and someone he can't get hurt with?

"But Bradley can give somebody, anybody a bad night, any night. It just depends on where they stand right now. Pacquiao had an injury. Is he mentally and physically 100 percent? And Bradley, as well. Does Bradley still wanna be up there and be hungry to win, or is he there because he's happy with the moment, he's getting good pay again? We don't know. We just gotta see. But I know that they're both gonna come to fight."

On how he would have prepared Bradley

"I would have prepared him exactly the same way we did for the second fight. In the second fight, we had the perfect plan. It didn't go our way due to the injury to his calf, but we were winning in the first rounds, until that injury came. And that was against a Manny Pacquiao who was pretty intense. He moves in and out. He always has you on the edge, you don't know when he's coming in. You just gotta have the right timing. And always make him fall short. Make him miss, and make him pay. Always be ready to move when he moves.

"Bradley was doing so good in the second fight in the early rounds, until we had that injury, and we threw everything out the window and had to just go for it. There wasn't much we could do. With an injury, it just mentally throws you off. There's not much you can do."

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