Arum chooses Bradley for Pacquiao: Few boxing fans care about this fight

By Boxing News - 02/06/2012 - Comments

Image: Arum chooses Bradley for Pacquiao: Few boxing fans care about this fightBy Chris Williams: Once again Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has displayed a tin ear for what boxing fans care about by choosing to put WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley in with Arum’s cash cow WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao on June 9th in Las Vegas, Nevada.

If I was to pick my choice of the top 10 fighters that I’d like to see Pacquiao in with in terms of excitement and fan interest, Bradley would be nowhere near the top of the list. I think Arum has no idea what boxing fans want to see, but he’s still going to show it and it’ll probably cost a lot to watch this fight.

My guess is Pacquiao-Bradley will go for at least $55-60 on pay-per-view. That’s about $60 more dollars that I would pay for this fight, because I don’t think it’s worth a dime. It’s a crappy match-up between an all offensive fighter who’s starting to lose his legs and an inside wrestler in Bradley.

Why Arum didn’t go the extra mile to put together Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez 4, Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Pacquiao or Miguel Cotto vs. Pacquiao II, is beyond me. But I’d much rather see any one of those fights than to watch Pacquiao beat up on a weak-punching slapper like Bradley.

This is a fight that Pacquiao fans will love simply because they’ll pay huge money to watch Pacquiao fight anyone, but I don’t see this as a good fight and not worthy of being on PPV. This is more like ESPN2 material at best.

If you compare the interest in the Pacquiao-Bradley fight and the Mayweather-Cotto fight, you’ll notice that the interest is huge in the Mayweather-Cotto fight and pretty much nonexistent for the Pacquiao-Bradley fight. I tell you Arum doesn’t seem to have a clue for what boxing fans to want to see or if he does, he’s just not making those fights for some reason. We’ve seen it so many times with Arum’s fighters. He didn’t make Yuriorkis Gamboa vs. Juan Manuel Lopez, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs. Sergio Martinez, Pacquiao vs. Mayweather, Nonito Donaire vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux…etc



Comments are closed.