Manny Pacquiao: Pac-Man Will Use Timothy Bradley's Trash Talk as Motivation

Timothy Bradley made a major gaffe by giving Manny Pacquiao some bulletin board material with less than two weeks until their match. He should have just stayed quiet and let his performance speak for itself.

That's not the route Bradley decided to take, however. The undefeated American chose to throw a couple verbal jabs at the eight-division champion, according to ESPN.

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"He couldn't stop a 38-year-old [Juan Manuel] Marquez, so he's definitely not going to stop a 28-year-old like myself," Bradley said.

"They may think that Marquez just has Manny's number, but whatever Marquez can do, I can do 10 times better. He's great at counter-punching, and I'm devastating at counter-punching. My counter-punching ability is unbelievable. I beat most of my guys on counter-punching. It's effective aggressiveness with counter-punching."

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In reality, Bradley makes a legitimate point. Pacquiao is coming off one of his worst performances of his 15-fight winning streak. He wasn't able to solve Marquez's defensive riddle, which forced him into a much closer fight than he would have felt comfortable with going in.

And that definitely plays right into Bradley's hands. He has only scored 12 knockouts in his 28 wins, so it's clear he likes to force his opponent to become the aggressor. It's a strategy that has allowed him to rise up the ranks quickly as of late.

With that said, there's no reason he had to make those comments. He had to know they would eventually make their way to the Pacquiao camp. The last thing he should have wanted was to give "Pac-Man" any extra motivation ahead of time.

He's one of the best boxers on the planet for a reason. One lackluster performance doesn't suddenly make him any less of a fighter, so Bradley should have kept those positive thoughts to himself and entered the match with a lot of quiet confidence.

Once Pacquiao hears those comments, any chance of him taking Bradley lightly or overlooking him will go out the window in a heartbeat. They will provide that last boost of inspiration he needs to train harder than ever leading up to June 9.

As the old saying goes, let sleeping dogs lie. Bradley would have entered the bout without much pressure and low expectations, but now he put the spotlight on himself for no reason and it really hurts his chances of pulling off the massive upset.

For the fans, trash talk is great. It adds more intrigue to a fight and makes it seem like there's real tension between the boxers. But that doesn't make it a smart move for Bradley.

He made a mistake, and he'll pay for it soon.