Tim Bradley facing off with Juan Manuel Marquez this past weekend in Las Vegas (Photo: Naoki Fukuda)
By Chris Robinson
Former two-division world champion and current day trainer Roger Mayweather will be quick to tell you that he isn’t overly-impressed with today’s core group of star fighters, even admitting that he doesn’t catch a lot of the high-profile bouts that take place.
With that in mind, I was a little surprised when Roger told me that he did make time to watch this weekend’s welterweight title clash between WBO champion Timothy Bradley and Mexico City’s Juan Manuel Marquez.
Facing off inside of the Thomas & Mack Center in an HBO pay per view encounter, Bradley scored a mild upset by being a little busier and out-slicking Marquez over twelve rounds.
Roger wasn’t taken aback by Bradley’s performance but gave him some credit.
“It was a pretty good fight,” Roger said recently. “It was alright. He didn’t have no dominating performance but he won.”
When asked if there was anything about Bradley’s effort that impressed him, Roger shook his head, instead turning to the Palm Springs champion’s actions afterwards.
“The only thing that impressed me was who he said he wanted to fight,” Roger stated. “He said he wanted to fight Floyd Mayweather.”
Roger’s nephew Floyd is coming off of another big victory, as he outpointed Mexican superstar Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez this past month over twelve rounds, making it look somewhat easy in the process.
Floyd would be a noticeable favorite in a match with Bradley and Roger revealed why he would even pick him to stop Tim.
“He’s tough but he gets hit too easy,” Roger said of Bradley.
Asked why Marquez wasn’t as effective against his younger foe, Roger pointed towards a speed advantage that favored the champion.
“Marquez was too busy trying to fight him,” Roger said. “He was a little faster than Marquez so he got off on Marquez and Marquez had to catch him. That was the key; he got off first.”
There’s a very strong chance that Bradley could find himself facing off with the winner of the Nov. 23 showdown between former titlist Brandon Rios and Filipino icon Manny Pacquiao.
Bradley edged Pacquiao via split-decision in June of last year but there was controversy surrounded the judges’ scorecards, as the general consensus was that he had actually fallen short despite a brave effort.
A lot can change in 16 months and Roger feels that Bradley would be able to clearly defeat Pacquiao in a rematch.
“He’ll beat Pacquiao,” said Roger. “I think he’ll beat Pacquiao.”
Before the dialogue closed, Roger again pointed towards Floyd, noting that he is the best option for Bradley from a business perspective.
“But if he wants money, he needs to fight Floyd,” said Roger.
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Chris Robinson can be reached at Trimond@aol.com