Pacquiao arrives at LAX, explains why he selected Bradley

By Boxing News - 01/19/2016 - Comments

YouTube video

By Chris Williams: The soon to be retiring Manny Pacquiao arrived at LAX in Los Angeles, California on Monday to begin the short two-day media tour starting Tuesday in Beverly Hills, California before wrapping up in New York City this Thursday on January 21st. Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) will be fighting WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (33-1-1, 13 KOs) in a third fight on April 9 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Pacquiao-Bradley fight will be televised on HBO pay-per-view.

Pacquiao says he selected Bradley because he’s improved a lot since the last time they fought in 2014. However, Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz said Bradley was chosen because it was the best financial package that was available for Pacquiao.

So in other words, Bradley was selected he gave Pacquiao the best chance of making the most money of the fighters that his 84-year-old promoter Bob Arum offered him as candidates.

“I’m excited for the training camp because I’ve been resting for almost one year,” Pacquiao said to Top Rank. “Eight months. The shoulder is good. Feeling 100 percent good. We’re looking for more action. We know that Bradley improved a lot since the last fight. He improved a lot this time. We’re going to start my training in the Philippines, and after one month, I’m coming back. I’m coming to LA to finish the training before the fight. He’s improved a lot since we had the last fight,” Pacquiao said.

When asked if this will be his last fight, Pacquiao said “Yeah.”

I don’t know that Bradley has improved at all since the last time that Pacquiao fought him in 2014. Bradley looks a little older since the last time they fought. He doesn’t look like he’s aged backwards like Benjamin Button. Bradley has fought only three times since the last fight with Pacquiao. Bradley fought to a 12 round draw against Diego Chaves in December 2014. In his next fight, Bradley beat Top Rank fighter Jessie Vargas by a 12 round unanimous decision last year in June.

In his last fight, Bradley stopped an out of shape Top Rank fighter Brandon Rios in the 9th round last November. Bradley didn’t fight anyone that you could call a good fighter that would tell you whether he’s improved or not. All the 84-year-old Arum did was feed Bradley three mediocre fighters in Chaves, Vargas and Rios. Arum didn’t put Bradley in with someone that could take his head off at the shoulders like Errol Spence Jr., Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter or Danny Garcia.

YouTube video

Arum didn’t match Bradley against someone that could potentially clown him in the ring like Amir Khan. I don’t think Bradley has improved since his loss to Pacquiao in 2014. I think what’s changed is Arum has been matching Bradley up against some of his less talented Top Rank fighters and of course, Bradley is going to be able to easily beat those type of fighters. Those aren’t talented guys. If you Bradley in with Porter, Spence, Garcia, Khan or Thurman, I think Bradley would have a miserable night. Pacquiao could then say definitely that Bradley has not improved.

Pacquiao’s adviser said this when asked why Bradley was chosen for Pacquiao: “I think Bradley was the best financial package I could put together for Manny.”

The options that Arum offered Pacquiao were Khan, Terence Crawford and Bradley. Two of those fighters are Arum’s own Top Rank stable guys. Khan and Crawford were supposedly filtered out because the pay-per-view and satellite distributors didn’t see them as the same kind of money maker that Bradley is. If that’s the case, then Pacquiao should have told Arum to look outside of his Top Rank stable to find him someone like Saul “Canelo” Alvarez for him to fight because I believe he would have been given the green light by the PPV people.

It’s unclear why Beverly Hills was selected as a location for the press tour. That’s a swanky area where the wealthy are situated. It would have been better off to have the press tour start off in the center of Los Angeles or one of the nice beach cities like Mission Viejo, Huntington Beach, San Clemente or San Juan Capistrano. Those are really nice small cities.

There’s still no mention of how much the Pacquiao-Bradley 3 fight will go for on HBO PPV. But if it goes for $70 or more, I think Top Rank is going to take a bath on this fight with very few fans purchasing the fight. There is no mystery involved in this fight, because Pacquiao has already fought Bradley twice and gotten the better of him both times. Nothing is going to change even with Bradley being trained by Teddy Atlas. That guy isn’t going to suddenly make Bradley a knockout artist. We’re still talking about a fighter who cannot punch, and who does little more than slap and move for 12 rounds. I think it was a big mistake for Pacquiao to agree to a fight against Bradley instead of putting his foot down and insisting that Arum work with other promoters outside of his Top Rank stable in order to get him a new name to fight that the casual boxing fans care about seeing.



Comments are closed.