Pacquiao vs Bradley: What Desert Storm Must Do to Pull Upset over Pac-Man

Timothy Bradley gets the fight he's been waiting for his whole life when he takes on Manny Pacquiao on June 9 for the WBO Welterweight title.

Unfortunately for Bradley, the fight he's been waiting for is going to be the hardest.

No disrespect to Lamont Peterson, of course.

Still though, Pacquio is beatable. He's lost before in his career and it's very possible, with his mind on politics, that he is overlooking Bradley.

This won't be as one-sided as you think.

Desert Storm is undoubtedly an underdog, but it's far from a long shot that he comes out on top in this fight. Here's a look at what he needs to do to make that happen.

Come out quickly

If Bradley is going to win this fight, he will have to surprise Pac-Man. And if he is going to do that, he will have to do it at the beginning of the fight.

The longer this one goes, the less chance of an upset there will be. Pacquiao is the veteran, and he'll slowly figure out how to beat Bradley. He is skilled at winning later rounds, and there's no doubt he'll do that again against the younger Bradley.

Bradley must come out with a fury, because, without a knockout, he'll have to win a large portion of the early rounds to have a chance.

Take advantage of his youth 

Bradley is only five years younger than Pacquiao, but he has a lot less tread on his tires. Desert Storm has 28 professional fights on his resume while Pac-Man has an amazing 59.

Bradley must not only come out with a fury, he must find a way to keep it up through the whole fight.

He shouldn't fight with a reckless abandon that leaves him defenseless, but he needs to throw at least 50 punches per round. He must find a way to tire out Pacquiao and make the champion uncomfortable.

That being said, Pacquiao is pretty comfortable with frantic speeds. But he's comfortable with pretty much anything, so Bradley's best shot is quickening the pace and hoping his youth pays off in the end.

Land a big counter blow

Pacquiao hasn't landed a knockout win since 2009 when he scored a 12th-round TKO over Miguel Cotto, so it's clear he is fine not going for the big punch.

However, according to Michael Koncz via boxingscene.com, Pacquiao might be itching for a knockout.

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“Manny knows that because of the last performance against Juan Manuel Marquez we need to have an exclamation mark in this fight. I think Manny is going to go out there and try to end it early.”

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Bradley needs to take advantage of that. He must be ready for the knockout blow from Pacquiao and find a way to counter it effectively.

If Pacquiao is too eager to end this fight quickly—it's very possible he's just getting bored and will go for it—it's going to hurt him and benefit Desert Storm.

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