



As he's done countless times in his life, Timothy Bradley Jr. was running down the streets of his hometown preparing for a boxing match. It's normally a lonely routine done in solitude – a lonely figure determined to make himself better.

This time, though, things were different. A young boy and his father spotted Bradley hiking down the opposite side of the road. Both became excited and the father all but shoved his son in Bradley's direction.

The boy approached Bradley with a pen and a scrap of paper, begging for an autograph.

"I was crossing a major intersection and this guy just had his kid run right out through the thing to try to get me to sign," Bradley said.

Bradley is nothing if not pragmatic and he laughs nervously.

"What kind of parent would send their kid out in that kind of traffic just to get someone to sign their name to a sheet of paper?" he asks, sounding more than a bit incredulous.

It's because boxing fever has gripped the tiny Riverside County town of Palm Springs, Calif., as Bradley, one of its most high-profile residents, prepares to fight Manny Pacquiao on June 9 in Las Vegas for the World Boxing Organization welterweight title.

Boxing doesn't get much bigger than a Pacquiao fight, and Palm Springs has gotten squarely behind Bradley.

Even as he built up an undefeated record as a pro and won world titles, Bradley remained fairly anonymous, even in his home town. But as his fight with Pacquiao, arguably the world's most popular boxer, approaches in about a month, the locals have gathered solidly behind their man.

"For me, it's a crazy difference," Bradley said. "Everybody in my hometown has been ecstatic about what's going on and they've been great in the way they've supported me.

"A lot of people are getting more accustomed to seeing me, and they know that I have a great love for this community. I'm a down-to-earth homebody family guy. A lot of them appreciate not only what I've done in boxing, but the manners I have, how I carry myself, that I'm not all blinged out wearing a ton of jewelry and trash-talking all of the time. I'm just me, another citizen, and I am doing my work."

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It wasn't always that way, of course. Bradley had a stellar amateur career, fighting mostly at 152 pounds, but he didn't get the recognition that many other amateurs with lesser records did.

He was, trainer Joel Diaz said, as good as it got, but he was a well-kept secret in the Coachella Valley and in the sport at large.

That, Diaz said, contributed to the kind of fighter he is today. Bradley is as physically fit as anyone and is more prepared than an Eagle Scout. Asked about Pacquiao's tendencies and how he'd handle them, Bradley rattled off several of the Filipino superstar's favorite moves in a rapid-fire manner.

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