Respect? Bradley starts by looking at himself

By Norm Frauenheim
Just when Bernard Hopkins, Floyd Mayweather Jr., most of the NFL, NBA and major-league baseball have us convinced that disrespect is an athlete’s best friend, along comes Timothy Bradley with a different take and some real friends because of it.

“I don’t feel I’m disrespected at all, honestly,” Bradley said.

It was an astonishing comment, straight out of the man-bites-dog variety, especially from Bradley, who wondered if there was anything resembling respect in a world overrun by social-media vigilantes with no accountability and armed with 140 characters to express anger at his controversial decision over Manny Pacquiao.

Disrespect isn’t just another cliche when it comes in the form of death threats.

Bradley heard them, battled them and exorcised them in a personal journey through what he called “a bad place.” He whipped them and Ruslan Provodnikov in a blood, sweat and tears drama that was the 2013 Fight of the Year. He had “a look of anger in him” against Provodnikov, Bradley trainer Joel Diaz said of reckless tactics that earned him a unanimous decision at the price of a concussion. He followed up with a patient, poised split decision over Juan Manuel Marquez. The disrespect was left behind in a passage that has transformed Bradley into a fighter who sounds more confident, self-assured and perhaps wiser than ever.

Convenient excuses and that tired pursuit of motivation from imagined slights just aren’t there in Bradley’s clear sense of who he is and what he must do to beat Pacquiao on April 12 at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand in a rematch of his split decision over the Filipino icon on June 9, 2012.

“It’s all about staying on TV, showing my craft,” Bradley said Thursday during a conference call. “It’s about fighting. That’s what it’s all about. Staying on TV, fighting the best fighters out there and beating them. That’s it. I came up the hard way. I came through the back door.”

Over time Bradley said, fans have gotten to know him and the way he works at his craft.

“I think now fans and people are beginning to gravitate toward me,” said Bradley, who is convinced he can beat Pacquiao with a decision that will leave no doubt on the cards or among those in the social-media mob who attacked him as if he were responsible for scores turned in by judges C.J. Ross and Duane Ford. “Before, they didn’t know me. They didn’t know me before Pacquiao. And after the controversy, they really didn’t. Like I had something to do with anything. I didn’t have anything to do with anything. I’m not a judge. I always did my job. But it’s hard to make people realize that. At the end of the day, all I’ve got to do is to continue to win. Then, they’ll have no choice.”

No choice, but to respect him.