source: Leighton Ginn | MyDesert.com
LAS VEGAS — Timothy Bradley displayed a hard and determined look throughout most of his final pre-fight news conference.
Suddenly, the focus of the Cathedral City boxer turned to an orange and black butterfly floating over his team's side of the dais.
Bradley believes it was a sign from the first man who declared he would one day be world champion — O.J. Couture.
“He was just here? You didn't see him? He was flying here. That was O.J.,” Bradley declared after his news conference Wednesday. “Butterflies are like a new beginning, a new life. That's the significance of butterflies.”
The unbeaten Bradley (28-0) will take on boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao (54-3-2) tonight in a welterweight championship fight at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino.
The pay-per-view fight is expected to begin sometime about 8:30 p.m., as officials have announced the bout won't commence until Game 7 of the NBA's Eastern Conference final between the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics wraps up.
Bradley first met Couture as a 10-year-old when he first walked into the Palm Springs Boxing Club with his father, Timothy Sr., who also goes by Big Ray.
“I say, ‘OK, all right, whatever. You sold me,' but I was going to sign him up anyway,” Tim Bradley Sr. said. “But he told me, ‘I'm not here to shuck and jive you, I'm not pulling your leg, but look at the way he carries himself. I know fighters, I know champions when I see them. Not everyone can be a champion that comes here.'
“Tim was different. He had a different light shining down on him,” Bradley said of his young son.
Couture and Russell Rodriguez helped shape Bradley, and not just in the ring. Couture would visit Bradley's school and check on him to make sure he was not getting into trouble.
“They were my boxing fathers, my heroes,” Bradley said. “They saved me, they saved me from being in the streets, and they gave me the opportunity to use my skill set and get attention in a positive way.
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