By Chris Williams: Michael Koncz, the personal adviser to Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s), thinks that Manny will need a really spectacular victory to show boxing fans that he’s still relevant and one of the top guys in the sport. In other words, just beating Bradley by a normal decision won’t be good enough if it’s a fairly close outcome, which is very likely to happen due to the two fighters being close to each other in the talent department.
Pacquiao is going to need more than just a knockout to get a fight against Boxing’s No.1 star Floyd Mayweather Jr. Pacquiao is going to need another big win, and he’s probably going to need to leave Top Rank at the end of the year when his contract expires Mayweather will consider giving a fight.
“I do believe that we do have to have a spectacular win here,” Koncz said via Nydailynews.com. “Not necessarily a knockout but a shutout in order to prove to people that he is at the top.”
Koncz can forget about a shutout for Bradley. That’s definitely not happening. The only way Pacquiao beats Bradley is by a narrow decision, and that’s if he beats him at all. I believe that Bradley is going to out-box Pacquiao tonight, and possibly knock him clean out if he gets foolish and follows his trainer Freddie Roach’s instruction to fight all out and go for a knockout. That’s how the 35-year-old Pacquiao got in trouble in his fight with Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012. He listened to Roach, and got knocked out cold.
Koncz is kidding himself though. Pacquiao won’t be able to prove anything in this fight, because he’s not going to be able to beat Bradley impressively enough. Like I said, I don’t see him beating him at all. The days of Pacquiao beating a fighter like Bradley in an impressive fashion are long past. I think Pacquiao would have beaten Bradley impressively in 2009 and slightly before that when Pacquiao was at his height of powers with strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza working him hard and doing a great job in building up his strength and size, but Pacquiao hasn’t looked the same since his fight against Joshua Clottey in 2010.
I’m not sure what happened to him, but maybe his fight against Miguel Cotto was more grueling for the Filipino star than what some originally thought. Since the Cotto fight, Pacquiao just looks tired much of the time and lacking in the energy and stamina needed for him to get stoppage wins.
Koncz wants Pacquiao to win impressively, but even if he does, where does he go from here? It’s not as if an impressive win over Bradley will lead to any real interesting fights for Pacquiao. His promoter Bob Arum already has Pacquiao’s next fight path picked out for him with Pacquiao fighting the winner of the Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Mike Alvarado match-up in September. If it’s Pacquiao and Marquez that wind up fighting each other, like many people thing, it’ll just be an old re-tread fight that is already played out like old an old oil well. After that fight, Pacquiao will probably be put back in with Bradley for a third fight.
In other words, there’s really nowhere for Pacquiao to go in terms of big fights after his fight against Bradley tonight. It would matter if Pacquiao were to win this fight by a sensational knockout and then move on to face Floyd Mayweather Jr., Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Gennady Golovkin or Sergio Martinez. But we’re not going to see any of those fights. It’s just going to be Marquez trotted back out for Pacquiao to fight for a 5th time, and then another fight with Bradley. After that, another fight with Marquez. It’s all so predictable.
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