By Edward Chaykovsky

Super middleweight king Andre Ward has known Timothy Bradley for a long time. He expects Bradley, the WBO's welterweight champion, to beat eight division beltholder Manny Pacquiao in a planned rematch, which Top Rank is targeting for April 12th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

In June of 2012, Bradley won a highly controversial twelve round split decision over Pacquiao at the same Las Vegas venue.

Ward is giving Bradley the edge to win due to his desire to overcome any obstacle - which he displayed against Devon Alexander, Kendall Holt and recently in his 2013 Fight of The Year victory over Ruslan Provodnikov.

"One intangible that Timothy Bradley has is his desire. You hear a lot of fighters say they that, 'I’ll die in the ring, I’ll do this and I’ll do that' and I think he is one of those guys that are willing to go to that place to get a victory, so Timothy came up the hard way, nobody ever gives him credit, he’s always the underdog," Ward told On The Ropes Boxing Radio.

"That’s the material, that’s the fuel that people don’t realize that push guys like Timothy Bradley to go above and beyond what people think he’s gonna do. So to answer the question I got to favor my friend, I got to favor Timothy Bradley, not necessarily with X’s and O’s and strategy, but just desire man."

"I feel he has a desire that can’t be denied and he has the intangibles that you can’t put your finger on what he has. I think he’s willing to go to whatever place he needs to go to not lose what he’s earned and that’s his reputation, that’s his undefeated record and the status that he has, so I got to go with Tim on that."