Boxing News 2014: Joe Cortez Expects Unanimous Decision Win for Timothy Bradley in Rematch With Manny Pacquiao

Hall of Fame boxing referee Joe Cortez believes that Timothy Bradley will win against Manny Pacquiao in their upcoming rematch on April 12 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

In an interview with On The Ropes Boxing Radio on Sunday, Cortez said that Bradley is now a different fighter compared to what he was during his first showdown with Pacquiao, and predicted that the reigning WBO welterweight champion will score a unanimous decision win.

After his controversial victory over Pacquiao in June 2012, Bradley has won two more fights—both in convincing manner.

The 30-year-old champion scored an impressive unanimous decision win in his brutal title showdown with Ruslan Provodnikov in March last year, which was followed by a victory over Juan Manuel Marquez in October.

Cortez said that Bradley showed a lot of improvement in his last two fights, and he is unsure whether or not Pacquiao can withstand Bradley's aggressiveness.

"I hope Manny Pacquiao can withstand the pressure of Bradley, the boxing skills and the decent power punching that Bradley has. It should be a great night of boxing, but I predict Bradley is gonna win a unanimous decision," Cortez said.

While most boxing fans and experts believe that Pacquiao won during their first fight, Cortez thinks otherwise. Bradley had Pacquiao's number during that bout, and the "Desert Storm" did enough to win by decision, he said.

"I think Bradley seems to have Manny Pacquiao's number, even though the fans felt it was a very controversial decision. Some fans think otherwise, they thought Bradley had done enough to get a win," Cortez said.

Cortez also added that Pacquiao seemed to have lost a step despite scoring a lopsided unanimous decision win over Brandon Rios in November. And in the event the Filipino boxing icon loses to Bradley again, Cortez insisted that Pacquiao should decide to hang up his gloves.

"If Manny Pacquiao loses that fight, I think that he may hang up the gloves and go on his merry way," Cortez said. "He's a nice young man, very charismatic, very intelligent and he has a political career in front of him and maybe he should go down and take care of business in his beautiful country of The Philippines."