By John F. McKenna (McJack): World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KO’s) who faces undefeated 28 year old challenger WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (28-0-1 NC) on June 9 obviously will be looking out for what has been described as Bradley’s third weapon, his bald head. The pair will clash at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas.

Much has been written about the potential of being head butted by Manny’s tough, young challenger who is certain to give it his best shot when he tangles with the “Pacman”. For that, Pacquiao and his long time five time trainer of the year Freddie Roach have been preparing for diligently. Roach has given assurances to Pacquiao’s fans that he will be more than up to the task of taking on Bradley.

Roach, who was at first dismissive of Bradley as an opponent for the eight division champion came around when it was evident that “Desert Storm” instead of the hoped for Floyd Mayweather or Miguel Cotto would be Manny’s opponent on June 9. And while Bradley is a rugged and tough opponent who is always in shape, he lacks KO power as his twelve KO’s indicate. Freddie believes that Pacquiao’s lightning speed and explosive power at close range will be far too much for Bradley to cope with. In some respects Roach believes that Bradley is made to order for Pacquiao.

The hype machine is in full gear in the attempt to build up Bradley as a viable challenger. But if he is all that, then why does he have such difficulty in getting fans to pay money to watch his fights? Bradley has had problems in selling out even small arenas. Part of the reason must be that Timothy’s fights are not that entertaining. Bradley’s fight against Devon Alexander in January of 2011 is a case in point. HBO pulled out all the stops in portraying it as a must see fight. The reality however was that the fight turned out to be a dud.

It was stipulated in the contract for the Bradley – Alexander fight that in his next fight he would receive $1.3 million no matter who he fought. The public wanted Bradley to fight then IBF/WBA Amir Khan for a title unification bout. For whatever reason Bradley opted not to fight Khan admitting that the fight was too risky. Bradley wound up being stripped of his WBC title belt for inactivity and split with his promoter Gary Shaw.

Top Rank CEO Bob Arum then jumped in to rescue Bradley from his self imposed oblivion. “Uncle Bob” signed Timothy and then got him a fight with the badly faded Joel Casamayor who Bradley TKO’d in the 8th round retaining his WBO light welterweight title. The stage was now set for Top Rank to put together an in house title fight between Bradley and the Filipino superstar.

The easy part is over, now all Arum has to do is convince boxing fans that Bradley really has a chance to defeat Pacquiao.