On Saturday night, after the absurd scoring and circumstances of the Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs. Bryan Vera bout, the first episode of 24/7 Timothy Bradley vs. Juan Manuel Marquez premiered on HBO. The Bradley vs. Marquez fight is coming up in just a few weekends, and it’s an intriguing contest, billed largely around the fact that these two have each just defeated Manny Pacquiao — albeit in very, very different ways. Here’s the recap of Bradley vs. Marquez 24/7 episode 1.
Bradley vs. Marquez 24-7 episode 1 begins with Bradley talking about his childhood, his upbringing and how he got into the sport of boxing. Then we flash back to the Pacquiao vs. Bradley bout, and the controversy and chaos which ensued.
Bradley believes he won the fight 8 rounds to 4, regardless of what anybody says and sees. He’s watched the bout many times and that’s what he deeply believes.
The public perception and reaction to that fight have been devastating to Bradley, his family and his team. Bradley’s father talks about turning vigilante against the people who sent death threats and such against them, and says he wouldn’t have a problem going to jail and doing time. Bradley talks about how tough it was, but that it in turn made him tougher.
Then we switch to Juan Manuel Marquez, and of course, his recent win over Manny Pacquiao left no doubt. He said it’s the greatest thing which has happened to him in the sport, and that it was a great win. It was divine justice.
Pacquiao and Marquez had battled to a stalemate through 36 rounds, but it was Pacquiao who was ahead in the series.
Marquez gives us the play by play of the fight, and his first knockdown of Pacquiao in the 3rd round. Then Pacquiao came back to score a knockdown. But Marquez wouldn’t stay in trouble for long. He says his bloodied nose motivated him, and with less than 10 seconds left in the round, Marquez was waiting and waiting for his opportunity, and he caught Pacquiao and timed it perfectly, leaving Pacquiao a helpless, unconscious heap on the canvas.
For Marquez, the punch he threw took less than a second. But it was a lifetime of dedication and strength and training, and the anger of the first three fights, and the belief of his family and his team and the Mexican people all in one.
Bradley says that he would have retired after that kind of high. After his own fight against Pacquiao, he next stepped in against the tough brawler Ruslan Provodnikov. Bradley’s trainer Joel Diaz didn’t want the fight, and Bradley came in with the mindset of earning respect to erase the memory of the Pacquiao bout.
It wasn’t long until Bradley got badly rocked, and he thinks he was concussed from the first round on. He was battling toe to toe and it wasn’t working. Bradley battled back and began fighting smarter, but then let himself slip once again in the 12th. He barely made it to the bell, but he won the fight.
Marquez had been basking in the spotlight a bit and enjoying the fruits of his labor. But he’s still hard at work, even at the age of 40. On his 40th birthday he gets serenaded in the gym with some mariachis. Marquez says he feels like he’s 25, and he’s certainly not worried about Bradley being a decade younger than him.
Bradley doesn’t have a lot of people around his camp. It’s a small team, and that keeps him motivated and focused. But he does indulge in some cars and other fringe benefits even as he forces himself to go on late night runs and push himself through intense workouts.
He also believes that he wouldn’t be facing Marquez if he didn’t have those struggles against Provodnikov. The perceived weaknesses he showed in that fight enabled him to land this one. And he believes that Marquez has been a cheater in the past.
But Marquez maintains that over 20 years, he’s been nothing but clean. Strength and conditioning coach Angel Heredia brings controversy to him though, due to his admitted past. But Marquez says he agrees to tests, he passes tests, and he’s never cheated.
The two sides agreed to a somewhat-secret testing program leading up to the fight in coordination with the Nevada State Athletic Commission. The fighters don’t know anything but when or how often they’ll be tested. It’s touted as the strictest drug testing for any boxing match, ever.
Marquez says, hey, come train with me for a month. I’ll show you how I’ve gotten stronger and better. But that’s not going to happen, at least not now or anytime soon.
And on that, we go into training montage mode, with the fighters working hard in the gym and talking about how they’re each going to win. The episode closes and we’re about two weeks out until the fight.
Thanks for checking out our coverage and recap of Bradley vs. Marquez 24/7 episode 1, and be sure to continue checking back over the next few weeks for more updates on this upcoming showdown.
