Arum thinks fans want to see Pacquiao-Bradley II

By Boxing News - 12/03/2013 - Comments

bradley25By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum thinks boxing fans are eager to see Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) fight Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) again, but he’s not sure if he’ll be able to put that fight together or not for April 12th. Pacquiao hasn’t said who he wants to fight, and Arum said that it’s Pacquiao who makes the decisions on who he wants to fight.

“It’s not me who makes the decision,” Arum said to Hustleboss. “We discuss it all and see who he prefers fighting, who Freddie [Roach] wants to fight…I think it [Pacquiao-Bradley] would be an excellent fight. I think people will be interested in the fight. Whether we put it together and what Manny’s views are, I don’t know.”

It sounds like Bradley might price himself out of the fight if he asks for too big of a cut. He’s probably going to want a bigger cut than last time he fought Pacquiao a year ago in June of 2012, because he beat him and it’s Pacquiao who is looking to avenge the loss.

The Pacquiao-Bradley fight didn’t bring in huge PPV numbers, so it’s hard to see why Arum is now thinking it’s going to be any different the 2nd time around. He might be under the impression that Bradley has won a big fan following after his fight with Pacquiao and his recent fights against Ruslan Provodnikov and Juan Manuel Marquez. I don’t think he’s won a lot of fans, and a 2nd fight between Pacquiao and Bradley likely won’t bring in huge PPV numbers.

What’s going to be interesting is if Arum can get Bradley to come over to Macao, China in order to fight Pacquiao, because Bradley likely won’t like the idea of having to travel to Macao to make the fight. I could be wrong, but I don’t see there being a lot of Bradley fans in the audience in Macao, and I think he knows that too. Bradley doesn’t get anything out of fighting Pacquiao in China rather than the United States, because he’s still taxed at the normal rate. It’s Pacquiao who gets the big tax savings by fighting in China. Bradley might still agree to take the fight over there, but it might cost Arum more money to get him to agree to that. Bradley is better off fighting in Las Vegas, Nevada, because a lot of his fans would be there to see the fight, and it wouldn’t be a situation where Pacquiao is the only one receiving cheers from the fans.

Arum really doesn’t have a lot of options for Pacquiao’s next fight. The whole Top Rank – Golden Boy Promotions freeze prevents Pacquiao from fighting the most interesting opponents, so he’s stuck fighting the same guys over and over again. We’ve see Pacquiao fight Juan Manuel Marquez 4 times, and he’ll likely fight the Top Rank promoted Bradley twice, and we just saw Pacquiao fight Arum’s fighter Brandon Rios. There’s just not many options for Pacquiao with the limited guys that Arum has. We’ll probably see Pacquiao fight Marquez for a 5th time, and eventually fight Rios again, as well as Arum’s other fighters Mike Alvarado. If Arum is saying it’s up to Pacquiao who he fights, I’m wondering if Arum is giving him a choice of 4-5 of his stable fighters. To me, that’s not much of a choice. Pacquiao would be picking from the likes of Alvarado, Rios, Marquez, Ruslan Provodnikov and Bradley. Arum has Provodnikov for one fight. Pacquiao can probably fight Marquez if they offer him a 50-50 purse split, but that probably won’t ever happen in this lifetime.



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