By Lemarcus: The collective opinions reflected in boxing columns continue to amaze and confuse me. Especially where the “Pac Man Sweepstakes” is concerned in regards to who should claim the prize. Bradley is an excellent fighter no doubt, (I am a fan of him myself), but he doesn’t deserve a shot against Pacquiao nor will he ever get a shot at MP. (More on that later)

While I don’t feel the time is right for a Cotto rematch, a fight with Cotto or Margarito would do a whole lot better financially than a Bradley fight. At this point in his career, that is what it takes to fight Pac. Just like Floyd, Manny has earned his position.

Bradley has a decent “hard-core” following but that’s about it. The casual fan? Ask 100 people on the street what they think about Timothy Bradley, the number 1 answer on the “Family Feud” board would be, “Who?” He has found no place in the imagination of the casual fan. Worse yet, he hasn’t even developed the kind of highlight reel that makes an impression.

That is pretty much the difference between him and Clottey. Clottey’s highlight reel speaks for itself. Dominant performances against Corrales, and pretty much Judah.
Wars with Cotto and Margarito that he could have or should have won.

Bradley on the other hand, has Abregu, Peterson, Holt, Campbell, and Witter as the biggest names on his resume. Again the casual fan survey says, “Who?”

As a hard-core follower myself, that is a very impressive resume, but it ends there, within the hard-cores.

In order to get a shot at Pacquiao, Bradley would need to dominate Khan, Alexander, Maidana and possibly Judah, before taking on the likes of Clottey and Berto. By the time he is done with that, Pac will almost surely have retired. There is a chance though, that he will become a PPV attraction somewhere within that run, and he won’t need the likes of a Pacquiao or a Mayweather.

Margarito may have tarnished his legacy, but he still has Mexico behind him. He has wins over Clottey, Cotto, Martinez, and twice over Cintron. Four of the five wins by KO leaving Clottey, who won’t allow himself to be KO’d.

He also has a close decision loss to Paul Williams and took a brutal beating at the hands of Mosley. None of these were on PPV (with the exception of Cintron 1 which was on a Mosley undercard for a terrible ESPN PPV) so he doesn’t have the PPV numbers to back his claim to a shot against Pacquiao.

The Mexican-Mexican American communities follow his fights on HBO and show up in arenas to support him. If he fights Pacquiao, not only will he have a great percentage of the casual/Pacquiao fans buying the fight, he will also bring the Mexican fans. I would guess Puerto Rican fans would come along as well hoping to see him get his destroyed by the Pac Man and in the process get revenge for Cotto.

All these factors point towards a great PPV draw, a rough guess near 1.5 million buys. A Bradley fight, based on the aforementioned lack of “casual interest” would probably do 850,000 buys at most. That is based more around the hype surrounding Pacquiao right now with Floyd not signing. A Margarito fight will bring leverage back to Pacquiao in reaching a 50/50 agreement with Mayweather.

As far as the Cotto variable is concerned, he should do at least two title defenses at 154 against top-tier opponents. This is to ensure that the Foreman fight was no mirage and that Steward can bring the best out of Cotto.

I would rather see Cotto get his shot at Mayweather anyway. The team of Miguel and Steward has a huge chance at beating Floyd. So with Cotto out of the way let us compare Tony and Timmy:

Resume: AM
Highlight Reel: AM
Following: AM
Predicted PPV Buys: AM

Hands down, Margarito should win the Pac Man sweepstakes.