Timothy Bradley ends Brandon Rios’ career, restarts Pacquiao talk

Brandon Rios is retired. Timothy Bradley Jr. is revived.

As quickly as Bradley peppered Rios with punches to the head and body en route to a ninth-round knockout Saturday night, fortunes turned.

At 29, Oxnard’s Rios said his flat performance after ballooning to a staggering 170 pounds on fight night was all the reason he needed to end a career that included a lightweight title and a multimillion-dollar purse against Manny Pacquiao.

Bradley was so impressive in his first bout working for trainer Teddy Atlas that he’s strengthened what was seen before as a long-shot bid to convince Pacquiao to accept a third meeting.

“Pacquiao will now review the tape of this fight, the tape of [unbeaten light-welterweight champion] Terence [Crawford’s] fight and he’ll make a decision,” said Bob Arum, who promotes all three fighters and has also placed England’s Amir Khan in consideration.

“I don’t make the picks, not for Manny, because people would say I’m pulling the strings and he’s a puppet, which he’s not.”

In 2012, Bradley earned what was widely viewed as a flawed split-decision victory over Pacquiao, who achieved revenge in 2014.

So Pacquiao’s updated assessment of Bradley (33-1-1, 13 knockouts) will be intriguing, given how the holder of Pacquiao’s former World Boxing Organization welterweight belt landed 254 punches against Rios while allowing the heavier challenger to hit him with only 81.

After realizing Rios felt “soft” during a hard third-round body shot, Bradley picked away until hammering the body twice in the ninth round. The first shot dropped Rios. The next two-punch delivery finished him.

“I did some things tonight that were better than what I did before,” Bradley said. “I did this little move where you throw this body shot and move, and it worked tonight.”

Atlas, too, was thrilled by the results of his seven weeks with Bradley, saying the “dreadful pressure” of the preparation was satisfied by his fighter’s execution of the fight plan.

“There were moments I was just so proud of what he was doing,” Atlas said. “Our game plan was to take a brick at a time. If you take a brick at a time, the house falls.”

Bradley was enthused by his showing, but unwilling to discuss what’s next. He even suggested his friend and former sparring partner Crawford, who attended Saturday’s fight, is the likely next Pacquiao foe.

“It is a step in the right direction. I feel good about my performance,” said Bradley, who promised Atlas will return. “I haven’t mastered these things. It’s only been seven weeks. I can only imagine a year … I want to learn as much as I can.”

As for Rios, he said he “made it farther than anyone ever thought” he would, and said he wanted to hang up his gloves before he could get injured in the ring.

“When it’s done, it’s done,” Rios said. “My body wasn’t doing the things I wanted it too. I tried to pull the trigger. It wouldn’t go.

“I’m not going to go in the ring and make myself look like a jackass. I’ve kept my money. It [hurts] to walk away, but I’m going to go enjoy my life with my family and find a nice place to go and chill.”