Boxing: Unbeaten Bradley retains title

LOS ANGELES: Unbeaten champion Tim Bradley captured a unanimous but narrow decision over Russia’s Ruslan Provodnikov to keep his welterweight title despite being knocked down in the fight’s final seconds.

In his first defense of the World Boxing Organisation crown that he took from Filipino superstar Manny Pacquiao in a shock split decision last June, Bradley won by judges’ scores of 115-112, 114-113 and 114-113. “I think I’ve got a concussion,” said Bradley .

“I know I do. No doubt. This guy is a power puncher. He’s a warrior. He’ll beat any 147-pounder out there. One of those punches in one of those rounds concussed me. I’m dizzy right now. At some point, that warrior instinct kicks in, the determination, the will to win, and that’s what I counted on.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 18^th, 2013.