Arum says 70% of tickets for Pacquiao vs. Bradley II are already gone

By Boxing News - 02/06/2014 - Comments

bradley88989(Photo credit: Chris Farina/Top Rank) By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum was pleased to announce earlier today that 70% of the tickets for the April 12th rematch between his two Top Rank stable fighters Manny Pacquiao and Tim Bradley have already been sold after one day of being on sale. The 82-year-old Arum believes that the remaining tickets will be scooped up in the next 2 weeks by fans who are excited about seeing Pacquiao and Bradley fight again.

I don’t know about you, but I’m betting we’ll be seeing a 3rd fight between Pacquiao and Bradley in early 2015 if the April 12th fight brings in good pay-per-view numbers. A third and fourth fight seem to be almost a given if the bring in good numbers. For me, one Pacquiao-Bradley fight was enough, and I’m gonna sit this one out and watch it on replay rather than contribute to what could lead to even more Pacquiao vs. Bradley rematches in the future.

“Tickets went on sale yesterday and already 70% of the tickets have been sold, so obviously in the next few weeks we’ll be able to announce a sellout,” Arum said via Fightnews. “A lot of excitement from all over the world about this fight.”

I agree with Arum that the fight will be sold out very quick. There’s a ton of Pacquiao fans in the United States, and they’ll gladly pay to see him fight pretty much anybody. If the Pacquiao vs. Brandon Rios fight were staged in the U.S, the tickets would have been purchased at the same rate as the Bradley-Pacquiao fight. I don’t agree that fans or the media is excited about the Pacquiao rematch with Bradley. I see it more of a case of people just being interested in seeing Pacquiao.

Bradley is more of a prop than someone that is attracting fans to the fight. He’s just the B side that is there as the opponent, even though he’s technically the one with the WBA title. But Bradley’s problem is he’s seen as a paper champion by a lot of fans. He still isn’t seen as having legitimately beat Pacquiao in 2012, and his close call win over Ruslan Provodnikov was basically a draw that cried out for a rematch to settle who the better fighter was.

The way that Bradley looked in that fight, you have to conclude that Provodnikov was the better fighter than him. You can call both of those fights losses for Bradley, and that’s why fans aren’t all that excited about seeing Bradley as Pacquiao’s next opponent in spite of what Arum is saying about there being a “A lot of excitement from all over the world.” No, there’s no excitement went this fight. It’s just Pacquiao facing a paper champion in the same Top rank stable as him and nothing more.

The really sad thing about this fight is that what comes next for the winner. Arum has pretty much lined up the soon to be 41-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez to fight the winner in September. That means we’ll be seeing a rematch no matter who wins. Marquez already fought Bradley last October and lost the fight by a 12 round split decision. So if Bradley beats Pacquiao on April 12th, then we’ll be seeing a rematch between Bradley and Marquez in September. And if Pacquiao beats Bradley, then we’ll be seeing a fifth fight between Pacquiao and Marquez in September. I hate all the re-tread fights that Arum shows, and I just wish he’d keep things moving along with new opponents every time, because it’s not interesting to see him make the same fights over and over again. He needs to expand his Top Rank stable if it’s just going to be in house fights all the time.



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