Former trainer believes Pacquiao has the right game plan against Bradley
The American trainer who steered Manny Pacquiao to his first world title believes Pacquiao has the right game plan for his rematch with undefeated Timothy “Desert Storm” Bradley at the MGM Grand on April 12.
Rick Staheli, back in December 3, 1998, helped the Filipino southpaw score a sensational eight round knockout to win the World Boxing Council flyweight title against Thai hero Chatchai Sasakul. More than 15 years later, Staheli believes Pacquiao has what it takes to win a world championship again.
The trainer visited Pacquiao in his hometown of General Santos City earlier this year. He told Yahoo Philippines Sports “I think Manny’s got the right game plan. I think if he’s very aggressive and pushes Bradley, I think Bradley is going to have a tough time with him. You kind of know that Bradley is going to be on the back-foot against Manny, He’s going to be moving his head and trying to use his speed and being tactical. He doesn’t want to stand toe to toe with Manny.”
Staheli who always emphasized physical conditioning before anything else said “the big thing is being aggressive and if there is an opportunity where he (Pacquiao) can go in there and finish him it would be nice if he did have that old killer instinct.”
The trainer noted that Pacquiao has been “too compassionate in his last few fights” and was pleased when Pacquiao said “he’ll try to get that little meanness back” when he steps into the ring against Bradley in a determined effort to erase the memory of a horrendous split decision loss in their first encounter in June 2012.
However, Staheli said he is “hoping that Pacquiao may not need to regain a killer instinct in a situation like this (the Bradley rematch).”
He emphasized that “you get that killer instinct if you’ve got to stop him but I believe Manny is talking about going out there and being very aggressive and if he’s aggressive and pushes him and pushes him I think he (Pacquiao) can be successful.”
Pacquiao appeared to be a little peeved when Bradley said he still has the skills but that his “killer instinct is gone” and took that as a challenge.
During the recent press tour in the U.S., Pacquiao responded saying “the aggressiveness and killer instinct, I still have that but sometimes I’m too nice with my opponents.”
He served a warning to Bradley, “he challenges me to do that. This fight, he’ll get it.”
“As for the ‘killer instinct’ where he has to go for a knockout, I don’t know,” added Staheli even as he pointed out that “he had that killer instinct against Juan Manuel Marquez in their fourth fight and he got caught. That was unfortunate but Pacquiao definitely showed it in that fight. I actually thought that it was the best fight because both of them were in there looking for a knockout and when that happens it turns out to be an explosive fight sometimes.”
The well-known trainer emphasized that there is no need for Pacquiao “to fight a reckless fight. But by the same token when he asked me whether I thought he lost the first fight against Bradley I said ‘no’ and told him ‘you won that fight but it looked like you faded in the last three rounds and the judges gave him (Bradley) basically the last three rounds. But I still thought you did enough to win the fight,’” Staheli told Pacquiao.
Staheli asked Pacquiao whether there was anything that put him off, he said “ I know Bradley moves nicely at the end but he just doesn’t have that. If you said Manny was going to lose the last three rounds then something had to be drastically wrong because he’s a great finisher and that’s how he won those fights against Marquez. Yhey were close and he tends to close the show a little bit better and wins the fights.”
He said while Bradley’s “ got a great looking body let’s face it, he doesn’t have the power. But he does have the stamina and trains as hard as anybody. His workouts are incredible so he expects to be there till the end of the 12 rounds.
The trainer who still has the highest regard and affection for Pacquiao told Yahoo Philippines Sports “you got to remember Bradley is not a big hitter and Manny said that. When I asked him who were the big hitters, he mentioned Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito who were of course bigger.
“Bradley is not a big hitter and if he’s on the back-foot he’s going to be even less of a big hitter so Manny can be a little bit reckless but its got to be controlled aggressiveness,” Staheli said. “He must just try to amp up the tempo of the fight and turn it into a high octane fight and hopefully he can do the job with that.”
