Timothy Bradley vs. Diego Chaves: Live Stream, Odds and Projected Winner
There won't be any titles on the line when Timothy Bradley squares off against Diego Chaves on Saturday for what could be a highly entertaining welterweight bout. Instead, the two men will be fighting for respect and their reputations.
Chaves (23-2, 19 KOs) is a rugged slugger who was disqualified from his last bout against Brandon Rios in August for an excessive amount of fouls and extracurricular activity. He needs a clean fight against Bradley to shake off any reputation of being a dirty boxer.
Bradley (31-1, 12 KOs) will be out to prove that he's not about to lose his spot in the upper echelon of welterweight boxing and relevant title discussions. He's coming off the first loss of his career, a 12-round unanimous decision that went to the great Manny Pacquiao and cost Bradley his WBO welterweight title.
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Although he defeated the Filipino legend by split decision back in June 2012, that bout was far from a clear-cut victory.
Both boxers have plenty to prove when they step into the ring on Saturday night. Here is all the necessary fight info for fans who want to check out the action.
Bradley vs. Chaves Fight Info
Date: Saturday, Dec. 13
Location: Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas
Time (ET): 10 p.m.
TV: HBO
Live Stream: Box Nation (subscription required, region restricted)
Odds: Bradley (-900), Chaves (+550)
Note: Odds courtesy of Odds Shark and updated as of Friday, Dec. 12 at 3 a.m. ET.
Preview and Projected Winner
Bradley has all the requisite tools a boxer needs to be successful in the welterweight division, except for perhaps elite power. Still, he's plenty skilled enough to outbox the majority of his opponents with excellent foot and hand speed, smart ring movement and strong timing. However, as RingTV.com's Lee Groves points out, Bradley struggles with consistency:
"When Tim Bradley boxes and sticks to an intelligent game plan, as he did against Juan Manuel Marquez, he is tough to beat. When he opts to brawl like he did against Ruslan Provodnikov and Manny Pacquiao in the rematch, he makes matters tough on himself.
We just don’t know what version of Bradley we’re going to get from fight to fight, which makes his fights intriguing. If one chooses to match best style vs. best style, Bradley’s best is better than Diego Chaves’ best.
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Simply put, trading punches isn't Bradley's forte. He needs to use his superior reach—69 inches to 66.5 inches, per BoxRec—and stay out of the way of Chaves' powerful shots. He can't get drawn into a slugfest the way he did against Ruslan Provodnikov. He's still plenty talented enough to win such a bout, but Bradley would put himself at an unnecessary risk by doing so.
Chaves' reputation as a dirty boxer could very well work against him in this bout, and not from the obvious point-deduction perspective.
"We know he is dirty, and we have prepared ourselves for the dirty tactics and the things that he likes to do," Bradley said, via ESPN.com's Dan Rafael. "We have stuff to alter that. We know what he likes to do -- wrap around, scrape the eyes, hit with the elbows. We are ready for all of that."
Bradley is clearly ready for anything in the ring with Chaves, which could make him less likely to come forward and try to trade with his opponent. Instead, awareness will be the key to the strategy. Bradley also noted Chaves "hates being hit in the body," per Rafael.
If Bradley can get body shots in early and prevent Chaves from moving forward with impunity, he should be able to control the bout and sting him with power punches in the later rounds. If the Argentinian gets into his head and works Bradley's chin early on, then a knockout is quite possible for the contender.
Chaves has three knockouts, two of them technical, in his last five bouts. He lost to Rios and Keith Thurman during this span, but Ismael El Massoudi, Jose Miranda and Juan Alberto Godoy were unable to make it any further than the third round against Chaves. Bradley should know this and will be wise to stay out of the way and go for a victory on points.
The high stakes of this bout and the looming specter of Chaves' fouls should have Bradley at his sharpest. He will favor speed over power and work his way to a unanimous-decision victory, keeping himself in the conversation as one of the best pound-for-pound pugilists in the sport.
Prediction: Bradley wins via unanimous decision
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