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Tim Bradley: ‘Let’s do this.’, Manny Pacquiao: ‘Okay.’

Fighters Network
11
Apr
Pacquiao Bradley II weighin faceoff fukuda

Photo by Naoki Fukuda

LAS VEGAS — Wearing dark shades and a black baseball cap, WBO welterweight titleholder Tim Bradley beckoned to the booing Manny Pacquiao fans to keep it coming as he walked onto the stage for Friday's weigh-in at the MGM Grand Arena.

Moments later, Pacquiao followed to the chants of "Pa-kee-ow! Pa-kee-ow!" and later, "Man-ny!" from a group of about 4,500 partisan fans.

"I felt like the hometown boy," said Pacquiao, embracing the crowd support. "I feel like this is my home game."

Displaying a chiseled upper torso, Bradley weighed in at 145.5 pounds, half a pound more than his adversary for Saturday's rematch with Pacquiao, whom Bradley defeated by disputed decision in June 2012.



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Asked what he was feeling by HBO's Max Kellerman, Bradley said, "Confidence."

"Confidence is the difference this time from the first fight. I have confidence going into this fight. I beat him before, and I can beat him again," said Bradley, whose entrance was accompanied by the rap tune "All I Do Is Win" by D.J. Khalid. "I've got to knock Pacquiao out. That's what I gotta do. I can't let it go to the scorecards. I gotta knock him out."

Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KOs), 35, is 5-2 with no knockouts over the course of his past seven fights, having last scored a stoppage win in November 2009, when he knocked out Miguel Cotto in the 12th round. In his past three fights, Pacquiao has lost to Bradley, suffered a sixth-round knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez and unanimously decisioned Brandon Rios.

Reminded that Bradley said he would stop him, Pacaquiao said, "Well, he'll have to prove it in the ring."

"That's when he's going to have to try to knock me out. But I'm prepared for that. A lot of people tell me that they're going to knock me out, but it's another thing to do it," said Pacquiao, who was later asked what Bradley said during the post-weigh-in staredown.

"'He said 'Let's do this, let's do this' and I said, 'Okay.' I have to finish business in the ring this time. I'm happy to be back in Las Vegas again. I have peace of mind, no worries. There will just be rest, prayer and belief."

Since beating Pacquiao, Bradley has risen from a 12th-round knockdown to unanimously decision Ruslan Provodnikov, and won by split decision over Marquez.

"He's ready," said Bradley, of what he saw in Pacquiao's eyes during their staredown. "He's fierce, he looked ready and determined for the fight."

For the undercard fights, lightweights Arash Usmanee and Raymundo Beltran weighed 135 and 134.5, respectively, and junior welterweights Khabib Allakhverdiev and Jessie Vargas were at 139.5 and 140.

Junior lightweights Jose Felix and Bryan Vazquez weighed 130 apiece, and junior lightweights Adrian Perez and Oscar Valdez were 130 and 129.

Brazilian Olympic 2012 silver medalist Esquiva Falcao and Publio Pena were at 161 and 162 for their over-the-middleweight limit bout, and light heavyweights "Irish" Sean Monaghan and "Irish" Joe McCreedy were 175 and 173, respectively.

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