By Chris Williams: Recently there was talk of Bob Arum considering putting his number 1 cash cow Manny Pacquiao in with the winner of the light welterweight clash between WBC light welterweight champion Devon Alexander vs. Timothy Bradley on 1/29. Instead of Arum looking to go over old ground by matching Pacquiao back up against recently beaten up Miguel Cotto, Joshua Clottey or Antonio Margarito, Arum would look to beat WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan to the punch by quickly taking advantage of the winner of the Alexander-Bradley’s short term fame by immediately putting Pacquiao in with them to get a nice pay-per-view bout.
It would be a smart move on Arum’s part if he were to dot hat but also a risky one, because Pacquiao is usually put in with fighters that are coming off of terrible beatings, fighting at catch weights and ones who have little ability to move around the ring. Both Bradley and Alexander have great boxing skills, and they’re the opposite of the type of fighters that Pacquiao has been feasting on since his controversial 12 round split decision win over Juan Manuel Marquez in 2008.
Since then, it’s been pretty much nothing but fighters that come straight in against Pacquiao trying to land and making it easy for the Filipino to overwhelm them with his hand speed. Pacquiao hasn’t been put in with a fighter that uses his jab, his reach or even thinks. It’s just been a bunch of fighters with no real plan just fighting Pacquiao’s fight. Bradley or Alexander won’t be anything like those fighters, and I can see Arum realizing that after he watches them perform next week and deciding against putting Pacquiao in there and risking having the gravy train end.
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