Pacquiao vs. Bradley II a done deal for April 12th

By Boxing News - 01/25/2014 - Comments

pac454By Chris Williams: The rematch between Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) and Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) is a reportedly a done deal for April 12th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, according to Yahoo staff writer Kevin Iole. It looks like the sticking point in that was keeping Bradley from signing his portion of the contract was finally ironed out.

It was reported that Top Rank wanted to get Bradley to re-sign for a multi-fight deal as part of Bradley getting the Pacquiao rematch. It’ll be interesting to know whether Bradley opted to re-sign with Top Rank for another long-term contract.

Pacquiao originally wasn’t excited about fighting Bradley again, because he felt that he deserved a decision in their fight in 2012. However, with his promoter Bob Arum only giving him a choice between fighting his old sparring partner Ruslan Provodnikov or Bradley, Pacquiao chose the only real option for him in facing Bradley again. What a choice; fight an unpopular ex-sparring partner [Provodnikov] or an unpopular WBO welterweight title holder in Bradley. Let’s hope for Pacquiao’s sake that Arum has some better options for his September fight this year, because if his only choices are are a third fight with Bradley or a fight with Provodnikov, you can expect Pacquiao’s pay-per-view buys to nose down into the 300,000 range.

Speaking about PPV buys, Arum is going to be lucky if the Pacquiao-Bradley II fight brings in even 500,000 buys, because this is not an interesting fight. Having to pay to watch the first fight was punishment enough, but to have to pay to see them fight again is really off putting. I’m surprised Pacquiao yes to this fight, because if Arum were my promoter, I’d say no to both Provodnikov and Bradley. But then again, if Pacquiao did that, Arum would likely trot out Brandon Rios and Mike Alvarado for him to pick from. Those are even worse choices than Provodnikov and Bradley, but there aren’t a lot of options for Pacquiao to fight in Arum’s stable now that Juan Manuel Marquez has decided that he’s tired of fighting Pacquiao over and over again.



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