“RIGHT PUNCH WILL K.O. BRADLEY”

Tim Bradley’s “left hook” is no match to Manny Pacquiao’s “right punch.”

That is just my opinion, but I will lay the predicate here having covered Pacquiao in his training, sparring sessions and yes the real thing, watching live his fight in the boxing ring.

Modesty aside, I watched him inside the Kotai Arena in The Venetian Macao in Macau, China last November 24 when he masterfully dominated Brandon “Bam-Bam” Rios which somehow silenced his critics and the doubting Thomases who thought that Pacquiao was already fading, forgetting perhaps the fact that the fighting Congressman from Sarangani Province is boxing’s only eight-division world champion.

His victory over Rios redeemed him from the surprising 6th round knock-out from Juan Manuel Marquez in December 2012 and he is back in business and from where I sit, he is all-out too, to avenge his loss to Timothy Bradley last June 9, 2012.

In their return bout this Sunday at the same venue, MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Pacquiao will do it with the RIGHT PUNCH, his antidote to Bradley’s braggadocio of left-hook.

I say that not from out of the blue as I observed him up-close in his several sparring sessions in General Santos City where I even covered him extensively for the Gensan City based Radyo Alerto of Socsargen Broadcasting Network Inc. (SBNI) during his high- altitude training in Baguio City for the first Bradley fight and later in his preparation for Marquez where he started in Gensan before proceeding to the Wildcard Gym in Los Angeles, California.

That said, I am familiar therefore with the punches and combination that Pacquiao is throwing to his opponents and recently, I saw the “new combination of punches” that will perhaps K.O. Bradley.

He perfected it with Freddie Roach inside the MP Wildcard gym in Gensan even before they flew to L.A. to continue but again because it is a NO-NO to sports scribes to squeal what they saw in the gym let me just call it the “RIGHT PUNCH.”

The right punch will come because of the five RIGHT FACTORS which I saw and observed and I am enumerating them below.

1) RIGHT COACHING STAFF- Freddie Roach has masterfully made Pacquiao what he is today. Elevated into the Hall of Fame, he is every boxer’s dream coach and being in the corner of Pacquiao in his return-bout against Bradley will again manifest how their coach-boxer relationship spanning for several years will work. Pacquiao consider’s Freddie his second-father and surely no father will allow a son to be defeated in any endeavor more so in boxing. If Pacquiao has a father in Freddie, he also has a brother in Restituto “Buboy” Fernandez, his childhood friend. Buboy is an able assistant to Roach.

2) RIGHT TRAINING- Kendall Holt and Steve Forbes are both marquee boxers in their own right. They surely will help in honing the skills of Pacquiao. The closed-door sparring in Coach Freddie’s gym is also good because the strategies emanating from the “right punch” will not be seen by the public including perhaps the potential spies from the opposing camp.

3) RIGHT CONDITIONING- Justin Fortune has pulled one over Alex Ariza and that happened recently when Pacquiao dominated Rios. Ariza used to be credited in how he pre-conditioned Pacquiao in his past bouts but that seemed faded away and the come backing Fortune has took over to infuse the new strength and conditioning regimen for Pacquiao.

4) RIGHT MOTIVATION- Pacquiao has been emphasizing many times that he fights not only for his self and his family. He is fighting for his country (Para sa Bayan). There is an added motivation though, his youngest son, Israel, whom his beauteous wife, Jinkee, incidentally the Vice-Gov. of Sarangani is expected to deliver within the month. When he returns home, Jinkee would give birth to Israel, who would come after Emmanuel Jr. (Jimuel), Michael, Princess and Queen (Queenie) Elizabeth.

5) RIGHT MIND-SET- everything starts with the mind-set and for Manny Pacquiao that is to become the WBO Welterweight Champion which eluded him the first time around. The verdict was controversial and Pacquiao believe that the judges then robbed him of victory. A pool of international boxing experts that reviewed the fight agreed that Pacquiao won after watching the fight video but the result was never reversed. Pacquiao wants to be the “CHAMPION” this time, his mind-set is into it, he vows a shut-out victory in his favor. He also wanted to “silence” Bradley who also charged him of losing the “killer instinct.”

There you are boxing fans from around the world, the RIGHT PUNCH. Obviously, this will also confuse Bradley and his supporters and precisely, I am revealing it without necessarily compromising whatever the Pacquiao camp has prepared. Suffice it to say, henceforth, the RIGHT PUNCH will be Pacquiao’s WINNING PUNCH. Mark the date, April 12, (April 13 in the Philippines) Manny Pacquiao will execute the perfection to the RIGHT PUNCH.