Timothy Bradley has had to overcome many mental hurdles to emerge as the No. 3 pound-for-pound boxer in the world, including backlash throughout the sport of boxing for his "robbery" against Manny Pacquiao in 2012.
Bradley stepped in the ring with Pacquiao in June of 2012, and emerged from that fight victorious despite injuring both ankles during the course of the fight. Fans and industry experts scoffed at the controversial decision though, and derision followed Bradley from that point on.
He travelled to a dark place mentally by his own admission, and re-emerged nine months later against a little-known brawler named Ruslan Provodnikov, nicknamed "The Siberian Rocky." Bradley did much to rehabilitate his tattered reputation in that matchup, engaging the bigger Provodnikov in a street fight that was named the 2013 fight of the year.
After surviving that firefight he went on to face Juan Manuel Marquez, leaving the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas a winner. Following the most entertaining bout of the year, and a win over Pacquiao's nemesis, Bradley was back in the good graces of most fans. Still, the Pacquiao doubt haunts him. On April 12th he will get his shot to settle the debate.
"In this fight, I can get all the credit for beating Pacquiao this time," Bradley recently told Fighthype's Ben Thompson. "I didn't get no credit for the first fight. A lot of people, a lot of spectators, a lot of fans felt that I didn't deserve it; that I didn't win the fight. You know, that's kind of hard, man, you know what I mean? That's hard for me and I don't think I can move forward in my career without fighting this guy again and putting no doubts in peoples' mind and actually beating him convincingly, man. This is my opportunity to do that and I'm gonna do it."
Pacquiao has spent most of his time these days fending off tax issues and campaigning for a fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. With this announcement, he'd better focus on Bradley because "Desert Storm" is going to give his best shot.
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