Timothy Bradley vs. Diego Chaves: Preview and Prediction for Welterweight Bout
Timothy Bradley tasted defeat for the first time in his professional career in April, and he’ll be looking to get back in the win column against rugged Argentine Diego Chaves in an HBO-televised main event on Saturday night at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas.
Bradley has been down this road before. Most fans and media felt he received a gift decision against Manny Pacquiao in 2013, and Desert Storm responded by winning the Fight of the Year over Ruslan Provodnikov his next time out.
Chaves isn’t as willful or determined as the Siberian slugger, but he employs a similarly rugged, attacking style. Whether or not he can force Bradley into exchanges and make him pay will play a big role in determining the outcome.
Two fighters coming off losses and needing wins to put some wind back in their sails?
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This is your complete preview and prediction for Bradley vs. Chaves!
Tale of the Tape
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All stats and information per BoxRec.com.
| Timothy Bradley | Diego Gabriel Chaves | |
| Record | 31-1, 12 KO | 23-2, 19 KO |
| Age | 31 | 28 |
| Height | 5'6" | 5'7.5" |
| Weight | 145.5 lbs (last fight) | 148 lbs (last fight) |
| Reach | 69" | 66.5" |
| Stance | Orthodox | Orthodox |
| Hometown | Cathedral City, California | San Miguel, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Rounds | 242 | 103 |
| Last Fight | L UD 12 Manny Pacquiao (4/12/14) | L DQ 9 Brandon Rios (8/2/14) |
Main Storylines
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Bradley
Bradley tasted defeat for the first time as a professional in his rematch with Pacquiao this past April. For most observers of the sweet science, it was his de facto second loss against the Filipino icon, and it put him back in a position of needing to prove himself.
Desert Storm is a top-five pound-for-pound fighter in the sport—according to The Ring Magazine, ESPN and Bleacher Report—but still struggles to gain the respect befitting his position.
Bradley has shown a great ability to rebound from adversity and put his past behind him. After the first Pacquiao debacle, he ventured far past his comfort zone and took a slugfest from Provodnikov in 2013’s Fight of the Year. A big victory here would do a lot to soothe some old wounds.
Chaves
Chaves is a tough, rugged opponent.
The Argentine gave welterweight uber-prospect Keith Thurman all he could handle before finally wilting to his foe’s big power shots in the second half of the fight. He was also ahead on the scorecards against Brandon Rios when he was mysteriously—at least the last foul—disqualified in August.
Chaves had some distractions and ran into all sorts of visa difficulties delaying his entrance to the United States before facing Rios. With those problems behind him, you can expect a determined, ready fighter looking to make a statement on a big stage.
Strengths
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Bradley
Bradley is a supreme ring technician and one of the smartest fighters in the game today. He throws accurate, effective punches, has a tremendous sense of distance and flourishes on the inside where he throws quick, precise combinations.
He’s also a dangerous counterpuncher from the outside. He can make you miss and make you pay, even if he doesn’t possess one-punch knockout power on his shots.
Bradley is very good at being Tim Bradley, and he really only runs into trouble when he fights outside of himself, which is something he acknowledged was a problem in the Pacquiao rematch.
"I learned a lot in that Manny Pacquiao fight," Bradley said in a media conference call on Thursday. "I learned that I’ve got to be myself in there and I shouldn’t try to be something I’m not. In this fight I’m going back to the drawing board and going back to what got me on top. That’s a high IQ for the sport. My boxing ability, my speed, using my thinking cap in the ring."
Chaves
Chaves can punch like a mule.
The Argentine has underrated hand and foot speed and isn’t afraid to make the fight ugly in order to put himself in advantageous positions.
Chaves is an aggressive, high-punch-output type of fighter. He likes to swarm and attack, and he doesn’t particularly care where his shots land. That’s definitely a boom-or-bust type of style, but that’s who he is as a fighter.
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Weaknesses
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Bradley
Bradley promised that he would approach his rematch with Pacquiao this past April with a whole different mindset. He promised to be vicious and attack—many of us didn’t believe him—but he made good on his word, failing to get a knockout early and fading down the stretch.
That fight highlighted a couple of problems in his game—fundamentally, a propensity to sometimes try too hard to be something he’s not.
Bradley has good punching power, but he’s not a big puncher. He loaded up early and often against Pacquiao, catching him with some good shots and getting little return. He executed the wrong game plan and left himself little in the tank for the second half.
Chaves
Chaves struggles when he can’t get into range to execute on his offense.
Against Bradley, who can fight effectively from the outside as a counterpuncher, that could prove to be a significant problem.
Chaves also has a tendency to fight in a style one could call dirty. He was disqualified against Rios—in a foul-filled affair he was winning—and often uses his head, hits low and rakes his glove against a foe’s eyes.
Bradley acknowledged that his foe was dirty, but says he’ll be ready: "He’s a dirty fighter. I didn’t think he was, but then I went back and watched some film on him. He’s a real dirty fighter. Throwing elbows, trying to rake the eyes with gloves, he does a lot of dirty tactics...I’m ready...I got some dirty tricks of my own."
Timothy Bradley Will Win If...
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Let’s just go ahead and take Bradley at his word that he learned his lessons from the Pacquiao rematch, shall we?
No disrespect to Desert Storm, one of the smartest fighters in the game, but that was a pretty stupid strategy, and you’d probably get the fighter and his coach Joel Diaz to agree.
Bradley is most comfortable boxing his way to victory. He has good pop on his punches—certainly enough to give opponents pause—but he’s never going to be one of those guys who lays waste to top-tier foes.
It’s just not his game.
Bradley indicated that he would be returning to his more conventional form in this fight, and that’s good news for him but not for Chaves.
By boxing and moving, engaging on the inside on his own terms and getting out, Bradley should be able to use his speed and ring smarts to frustrate Chaves without too much difficulty.
He doesn’t want to linger or languish, however, getting wild like he did against Provodnikov and giving his opponent chances to change the game with power shots.
Boiling it all down, if Bradley fights like he did against Pacquiao the first time and in his win over Marquez, he wins this fight decisively.
But he must control his temper.
Chaves will foul and try to force him off his game. Bradley must make sure that doesn't happen.
Diego Chaves Will Win If...
6 of 7Chaves won’t win a boxing match against Bradley.
That much you can mark down.
He needs to figure out ways to “Provodnikov” his foe. By that, we mean get his temper up, force him to engage more than is smart and then make him pay with game-changing shots.
Chaves is tough and rugged, and he has been known in the past to engage in some less-than-legal forms of attack. You could say the same for Bradley, and Desert Storm has shown a bit of a temper inside the ring in past fights.
The Argentine needs this to be a fight, an ugly one if possible, and he needs to do everything in his power to frustrate Bradley, make him mad and make him fight rather than box.
In other words, the key is throwing him off his game.
And the Winner Will Be...
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It’s always exciting when you pair a couple of tough fighters coming off losses and see what shakes out on fight night.
That said, it’s very unlikely Bradley loses this fight.
He’s not dropping two in a row.
Bradley is clearly a top-five pound-for-pound fighter, despite the loss to an all-time great in Pacquiao, and he should still be in line for significant and lucrative fights.
He will be a world champion again, and that process begins with Chaves on Saturday night.
The Argentine is a fighter, and he’s going to try to goad Bradley into exchanges that play against his strengths. But if you’ve ever see Diaz or his coaching style at work, you’ll know that he’s not going to let his fighter get away with that again.
Fool me once...
You know the rest.
Bradley is quicker, smarter and more diverse in his offensive attack. It’ll be rough and tough in a few spots, but he’ll fight within himself and counter Chaves effectively for a decisive victory.
Prediction: Bradley UD 12 Chaves (117-111)
Kevin McRae is a featured boxing columnist for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained firsthand.
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