Pacquiao should fight Crawford to help Arum out

Manny PacquiaoBy Manuel Perez: Manny Pacquiao is working hard trying to get ready for his April 9 fight next month against former two division world champion Tim Bradley at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Pacquiao has a couple of smaller sparring partners to get him ready for the fight.

If Pacquiao defeats Bradley, then he’s supposed to be retiring from the sport after that in order to seek out a position in the senate in the Philippines. Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum would be more than happy if he continued his career, as he would really like to match him against his young unbeaten fighter Terence Crawford.

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Pacquiao’s eye injury slows training down

pac3366By Chris Williams: Former eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao is still slowed up from the after effects for an eye injury that he suffered a couple of weeks ago. Pacquiao hasn’t been able to spar like he previously did due to the injury to his right eye. Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach is hoping to get the 37-year-old back to full strength soon at his gym in General Santos City in the Philippines.

Pacquiao is training for his third fight against Tim Bradley on April 9 on HBO PPV at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is supposed to be the final fight of his series with Pacquiao, but you never know. If his promoter Bob Arum is able to convince him the continue his career, it’s always possible we could see a fourth fight between Pacquiao and Bradley.

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Pacquiao suffers eye injury; Roach says it’s not serious

pac999By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach says Manny Pacquiao suffered an eye injury to his right eye sparring this week on Tuesday at the MP Wild Card Gym in General Santos City in the Philippines.

Pacquiao was Wednesday off from sparring. Roach says it’s not a serious eye injury, and he plans on giving him as much time as he needs for it to heal. Pacquiao, 37, is getting ready for his April 9 fight against Tim Bradley at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. There’s not much time for Pacquiao to heal, so you have to hope that his eye can heal quickly.

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Roach: I have to keep Pacquiao focused on boxing

roach6By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach says he’s having to work on keeping Manny Pacquiao focused on the task at hand in getting ready for his next fight against Tim Bradley. Roach says that Pacquiao is still playing basketball at night during training camp, and he wants to keep him focused on boxing so that he’ll be ready for his April 9 fight against the 32-year-old Bradley at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. It’s an important fight for the Filipino star because it’s supposed to be his last one.

The real question is why is Pacquiao playing basketball? He’s supposed to be getting ready for what is the most important fight of his career. If Pacquiao loses to Bradley on April 9, it might hurt his political ambitions.

Pacquiao is running for a seat in the senate in the May elections in the Philippines. You would think that another loss to Bradley could mess things up for Pacquiao, causing him to lose the election.

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Arum won’t postpone Pacquiao-Bradley

arum5By Chris Williams: 84-year-old promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank says he won’t be postponing the April 9 fight between his two Top Rank stable fighters Manny Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) and Tim Bradley (33-1-1, 13 KOs) despite there being a tremendous amount of distraction going on from that fight due to the criticism that is being leveled at the 37-year-old Pacquiao over his recent comments about gays.

Arum is saying that there is a massive amount of interest from the boxing public in the Pacquiao vs. Bradley 3 fight, and he believes it’s going to do well on HBO pay-per-view.

It probably would be better for Arum if he were to delay the Pacquiao-Bradley 3 fight for at least three to four months so that fans could eventually focus on the fight rather than on Pacquiao’s recent comments, but Arum doesn’t seem interested in delaying the fight. He wants the fight to take place on time.

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Will Pacquiao-Bradley 3 see backlash over Manny’s comments?

pac3366By Dan Ambrose: 37-year-old Manny Pacquiao saw his contract with sporting company Nike terminated on Wednesday due to some homophobic remarks he had recently made. Pacquiao apologized for the comments, but it wasn’t enough to prevent him from losing his contract with Nike.

Now the question is will the backlash from this incident hurt Pacquiao’s April 9 fight against Tim Bradley on HBO pay-per-view? This is the last thing that Pacquiao, Bradley, and their promoters at Top Rank needed right now. The fans are already showing scant interest in the fight, which will be the third time they face each other.

If it wasn’t already clear before, it seems now that Top Rank promoter Bob Arum made a mistake by matching Pacquiao and Bradley against each other yet again.

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Roach: Pacquiao not showing hesitation in either hand

pac63By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach says his star fighter Manny Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) isn’t showing any hesitation in using either of his hands in training camp. Roach started training camp with Pacquiao in the Philippines last Sunday in General Santos City.

Thus far, the 37-year-old Pacquiao isn’t showing any signs of having problems throwing punches with his surgically repaired right shoulder. Pacquiao tore his right rotator cuff in his 12 round decision loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. last year in May, and he had surgery to repair the problem in the same month.

It’s now been nine months since his surgery. According to Roach, Pacquiao is looking pretty good right now and not showing any ill effects from his surgery on his shoulder.

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Roach arrives in Philippines to start Pacquiao’s training

roach45By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach arrived in the Philippines on Satruday at General Santos City to start training former eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) for his April 9 fight against Tim Bradley (33-1-1, 13 KOs) on HBO pay-per-view from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Roach will be training the 37-year-old Pacquiao in the Philippines for the first half of his training camp. The second half will take place at Roach’s Wildcard Gym in Los Angeles, California.

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Pacquiao still determined to retire after Bradley fight

pac563By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) insists that he still plans on retiring after he fights Timothy Bradley (33-1-1, 13 KOs) for the third time in their fight on April 9 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum and trainer Freddie Roach both believe that Pacquiao won’t retire, and for that reason they’re not selling his third fight with Bradley as his final one. They see Pacquiao coming out of retirement to resume his career.

“I don’t care what others think but as for me, I will retire after the Bradley fight),” said Pacquiao to philboxing.com.

Pacquiao almost has to retire after the Bradley fight, because if he doesn’t hang up the gloves, his promoter Arum is likely going to lean on him to try and get him to fight WBO light welterweight champion Terence Crawford, who is one of Arum’s promising fighters in his Top Rank stable.

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Arum: I didn’t say HBO didn’t accept Khan as an opponent for Pacquiao

Image: Arum: I didn’t say HBO didn’t accept Khan as an opponent for PacquiaoBy Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says HBO didn’t reject Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) as an opponent for Manny Pacquiao’s next and perhaps final fight of his career on April 9 on HBO PPV. Arum says he was told by them that WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley was a more difficult opponent for Pacquiao, and a fighter that would bring in more sales than Khan or Terence Crawford.

Arum said previously that the cable and satellite distributors had rejected Khan as an opponent for Pacquiao. If that’s the case, then it’s going to be bad if the Khan vs. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez fight brings in many more pay-per-view buys than the Pacquiao-Bradley fight on HBO PPV.

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