Bradley starts the trash talking, says Pacquiao lost his killer instinct

Floyd Mayweather spent the past few months talking trash about Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 knockouts) through interviews and posts on his social media account. But after the rematch between Pacquiao and reigning WBO welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (31-0-0, 12 KOs) was announced, the young champion decided to pick up where Mayweather left off.

In an interview with Fight Hype’s Ben Thompson, Bradley started the fireworks by saying Pacquiao is no longer the same fighter he was before.

"He doesn't have that killer instinct. Yeah, he didn't have that killer instinct in that Rios fight. I think it was because Rios has that power. So he's a little scared of that power, man,” Bradley said. “There were times where he probably could've finished Rios, or attempted to, and he played it safe, you know what I'm saying. So I think that's going to definitely work in my advantage."

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Bradley won a controversial decision in his first fight with Pacquiao. The Filipino landed more punches and did most of the damage but two of the judges scored the fight for the American. Pacquiao was aggressive against Bradley in their fight fight but the reigning champion made his bold statements based on Pacquiao’s last fight against Brandon Rios.

“I think that he might not want to engage too much with me. I know I'm not a Rios-type puncher, you know, but I know in that first fight, he was real defensive for some reason; boy, he was defensive. Yeah, when you go back and watch that fight and you see how defensive that guy was fighting me; he was defensive, dude, and he only worked like maybe a minute in every round."

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Even if Bradley said that Pacquiao worked only for a minute of every round, the eight-division world champion still outlanded Bradley 253 to 159, almost a hundred punches more in the 12-round fight.

"He was putting his hands up most of the time trying to block shots and get out of the way,” Bradley continued. “This time around, I don't think he's going to engage that much, man. He got hurt. He admitted that Rios hurt him with a shot, so, you know, like I said, I'm not a Rios puncher, but I got a punch."