Tim Bradley doesn’t think Luke Campbell believes in himself!
Without question, when it comes to Vasiliy “Hi-Tech” Lomachenko, former five time champion Tim “Desert Storm” Bradley is a major fan! The Top Rank analyst has gone on record an innumerable amount of times to sing the Ukrainian’s praises. In a recent interview conducted by FightHype, Desert Storm once again did the most to heap accolades on Hi-Tech.
“How good is Lomachenko? Well, I have to say that he is one of the best fighters in the world, if not the best fighter in the world right now. I have Terence Crawford currently #1 right now in the game.
“If Loma wins this fight and he wins it in the fashion that I think he is going to win it in, then I’ll move Loma to my number one pound-for-pound in the game!”
On August 31, Lomachenko will defend his WBO and WBA super world lightweight titles against Luke Campbell. He will also be simultaneously competing for the vacant WBC lightweight title. Clearly, Bradley feels that Lomachenko will walk away the victor. Yet, let the animated commentator tell it, he is of the mind-state that Campbell thinks the same as well!
MIND OVER MATTER
As with most elite-level sporting endeavors, not only is physical training of the utmost importance, so is mental preparation. Some would argue that the mental aspect is of more importance; Bradley is most assuredly in this camp.
The former two-division champion delighted in retelling how splendidly prepared Lomachenko is in-ring due to his unorthodox methods of training outside of it. Desert Storm thought that Loma’s utilizing years of dance class, hand-eye coordination drills and teaching himself to hold his breath for four minutes was awe-inspiring.
For him, all these atypically methods of preparation were representations of Hi-Tech’s superior mental strength.
“You need to understand, to be number one you got to be odd! Think about that. You’ve got to be odd to be number one, odd!
“Everything Loma does through preparation is different than anybody that you’ve ever seen[…] he’s a wizard at what he does, he’s a master at what he does.”
FIGHTING THE ODDS
Oddly enough, when it came to Luke Campbell going above and beyond the call of duty to incorporate unique training techniques, Bradley felt this illustrated an absence of self-belief.
More specifically, Desert Storm had no respect or adoration for Campbell sparring three fighters simultaneously to get himself ready for Loma. Rather than uplift Campbell for this strenuous endeavor, Bradley repeatedly indicated that this proved that Luke Campbell had already mentally lost the fight.
“He fought, he sparred three guys, that I read, three guys at the same damn time! What kind of deluded thinking is that? Three guys, to what, imitate Lomachenko? Are you serious, really, like how does that make any sense?
“[…] That’s six hands coming at you bro, I don’t get it. But anyways, that right there tells me alone that he doesn’t believe in his ability; that he doesn’t believe that he is good enough to compete with Lomachenko. I told you, ninety percent of boxing is mental. He’s already somewhat lost the battle, already mentally.”
While sparring three men at the same time is the height of being unorthodox, we will just have to see how it does, or doesn’t, benefit Campbell in the fight.
Yet, if the UK fighter was able to successfully fend off this trio of attackers, then it would seem logical that he could defend himself against the very liquid Lomachenko. Guess we all will just have to tune in to see how this fun overseas battle plays out!
By: Bakari Simpson
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