By Chris Williams: After watching last night’s HBO Pacquiao/Bradley 24/7 episode 1, it seems pretty clear that the fight is lacking someone to play the villain. Both Pacquiao and Bradley are playing good guys with Pacquiao toting the bible and preaching to a small audience of followers. And Bradley also playing the good with him showing what a good family man he is. I thought we had the makings of a villain when I saw Pacquiao on the gun range, but it turned out to be boring and harmless.

The episode lacked drama needed from someone to play the tough guy role, because neither of them wanted to wanted to talk trash or come across as intimidating. It just seemed incredibly boring to me, because they’re too nice and it’s almost like watching a couple of harmless golf pros instead of fighters.

Briefly Bradley came across as the villain when he described beating up a kid in a wheelchair, but he said he did it as a child, so that hardly counts. He hasn’t done anything recent that you can really excited about and the video of him coaching football for his son wasn’t helpful to his cause.

Pacquiao kind of came across as a bad guy by coming up with excuses for his less than impressive performance in his last fight against Juan Manuel Marquez by blaming it on underestimating Marquez, and not doing his plyometrics exercises. It just sounded like Pacquiao was making excuses for what he couldn’t do in the ring on that night. And then his wife Jinkee joined in with the excuses by pointing out that they had been going through some problems before the fight. None of that made Pacquiao look good, although I don’t think he realized at the time. I guess he thought boxing fans would eat it up and give him a break.

Neither Bradley or Pacquiao seem interesting to watch and the HBO crew need to find someone else that can liven it up a little. I was surprised that the first episode didn’t have more of Freddie Roach, because he usually has a huge role each time Pacquiao is showcased on HBO’s 24/7 episodes. I almost think it becomes about him rather than Pacquiao, because he’s given a huge role. But they need someone that can make it interesting to watch because listening to Pacquiao talk about the bible and Bradley about his family is about as interesting as watching paint dry. There needs to be someone that can liven things up.