Floyd Mayweather vs. Canelo Alvarez has come and gone, but the boxing world continues spinning. On October 12th, undefeated Timothy Bradley will step into the ring against Juan Manuel Marquez, who planted Manny Pacquiao's face onto canvas in his last bout.
Both men have defeated Pacman recently, with Bradley following that victory with a heart-stopping brawl against unheralded Ruslan Provodnikov. Despite Bradley's spotless record, and big-time win over Pacquiao, he has struggled to become a big-time draw. Because of that, his trainer Joel Diaz believes Top Rank promoter Bob Arum wants Marquez to prevail when the two meet.
"For a fact, I know that his promoter would rather have Marquez win than Bradley win. And we know that," Diaz said. When pressed on why he feels so strongly, Diaz didn't hold back.
"Marquez is a big name, he's a big draw," said Diaz. "Bradley, as you can see, he doesn't draw much. He doesn't have a big draw in boxing. But he keeps winning, he keeps fighting. He's a four-time world champion. As a business person, I'm sure that Bob Arum would rather have Marquez win than Bradley win. Because there [are] bigger fights out there and bigger opponents. We have that in mind and we work against all those adversities."
Diaz blames a lack of marketing and hype around Bradley for his low profile. That probably stems from his relative lack of punching power; despite rolling through 30 opponents with no losses, Bradley has only won 12 fights via knockout.
"Tim Bradley has always worked his way up the hard way," Diaz told Hustleboss.com. "Nobody's ever given him love in the business of boxing. Every single one of his fights, they want to take him out; they want to put him out of the business, one way or another. But he keeps winning. That's one thing that we have in mind.
© Copyright 2024 Sports World News, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.