By Robert Morales

When Top Rank's Bob Arum signed Timothy Bradley to a promotional contract in 2011, the veteran promoter knew one thing for certain - he was getting a fighter with heart. Arum had seen it for himself when Bradley got up from two knockdowns to defeat Kendall Holt - who was fighting for Arum - in a super lightweight title unification bout in April 2009.

It was therefore no surprise to Arum the way Bradley (30-0, 12 KOs) defended his welterweight title against Ruslan Provodnikov via narrow unanimous decision last March at Home Depot Center (now StubHub Center) in Carson, Calif. It was a brutal bout in which Bradley again tasted the canvas and absorbed tremendous punishment - even in victory.

"He's very, very determined," Arum said. "And he has confidence in himself and he prepares himself 100 percent. And he showed enormous courage, particularly in the Provodnikov fight. Also in the (Manny) Pacquiao fight. But in the Provodnikov fight, the kid just refuses to quit.

"Even before we started promoting him, we promoted Kendall Holt and he fought Holt for some title. And Holt creamed him in the first round, knocked him down I think twice and almost had him out. And Bradley came back and won the fight. So that says a lot about a guy. You knock him down and he comes back, just refuses to lose."

Bradley defends his WBO welterweight title against Juan Manuel Marquez on Saturday night at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.