He may be the underdog in the sportsbooks, but come June 9th, Timothy Bradley doesn't think he'll have any disadvantages inside the ring. Despite the fact that the 140-pound champion will be moving up in weight to face Pacquiao for his 147-pound title, Bradley is of the opinion that he's the naturally bigger fighter. "A lot of people think I'm the smaller guy, that I'm the little guy. This is what the public doesn't realize, when I was 16, I didn't fight at 118. I fought at 152 pounds when I was 16," he explained, noting that Pacquiao has had to work his way up to the welterweight division whereas he's been heavier than the weight ever since he was a teenager. "I naturally walk around at 160, 165 pounds. Manny probably gets no higher than 155, maybe 150 walking around. I'm a naturally bigger guy even though I fought at 140 and he fought at 147."
While it's no secret that Pacquiao has to consume nearly 7000 calories a day just to keep his weight up in order to compete as a welterweight, I can't help but wonder if Bradley might be making the same mistake as many opponents before him, who all assumed they would be the naturally bigger and stronger man on fight night, only to realize they were wrong. "If you look at my muscle mass, his muscle mass, I'm the bigger guy. What Manny does have is bigger legs. His legs are ridiculous. Where he makes up for it is his leg, I make up for it with the top half of my body," Bradley continued in a recent interview with The Desert Sun. "I'm used to fighting guys 6-0, 5-10. So the whole power thing of me being the little guy, you can throw that out the window. That won't be the case during the fight."
Given Bradley's own comparison of their physiques and muscle mass, I think I'm still going to have to give the advantage to Pacquiao when it comes to "the whole power thing". As most trainers will tell you, boxing isn't a bodybuilding competition. Even though Bradley might be physically bigger in his upper body, it's the legs where all the power is generated from, and as he so astutely pointed out, Pacquiao's legs are "ridiculous". If he thinks he's going to be just as powerful as Pacquiao, he's going to be in for a rude awakening on June 9th. I really hope he doesn't underestimate the explosive punching power of Pacquiao and decides to trade with him, because if he does, it could be an extremely short night.
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