Pacquiao-Bradley 2: PPV=Pay for Who?

04/11/201404/10/2014 B.J. Garnett

Top Rank has once again underwhelmed us with a lackluster undercard for the Manny Pacquiao v Tim Bradley PPV event scheduled for Saturday night. On a night when we are watching a rematch of a fight that wasn’t highly entertaining to start with, I really expected Bob Arum to stack the card with A list talent. Instead we are left with a “Friday Night Fights” type of lineup.

This is no slight to ESPN because I have seen some great fights on FNF but that platform is for contenders on the way up or a name fighter trying to re-establish their career. Ray Beltran v Arash Usmanee is a fight I would expect to see opening up for a Boxing After Dark card.

Will Bradley Lose Even if He Deserves to Win Pacquiao Rematch?

04/11/201404/10/2014 Alexander Caldwell

Timothy Bradley and Manny Pacquiao didn’t exactly put on a spectacular show the first time they fought. It was a pretty boring fight actually, and it followed the same predictably dull pattern round after round for the most part. Bradley would typically out hustle Pacquiao for the first 2 minutes of a round, before Pacquiao finished strongly over the last minute. The Filipino generally landed enough crippling lefts that he was winning the rounds, despite looking unusually lethargic during the early portions of most rounds. Nothing particularly exciting happened at any point during the fight, though.

Even though Pacquiao seemed to do enough to comfortably win, the judges saw differently and awarded it to Bradley. Everyone was amazed by the outcome. Fans were shocked, Pacquiao was perplexed, the commentators were annoyed, Freddie Roach was perturbed, Bob Arum was outraged, and even Bradley himself seemed surprised beyond words, with an expression that more closely resembled that of a big money lottery winner than of one who believed he earned a deserved victory. By most accounts this was viewed as a “robbery”, some going so far to call it one of the worst in history.

Kellerman: Pacquiao has more ways to win than Bradley

04/10/2014 Jeff Sorby

My man @Max_Kellerman and I break down #PacBradley 2. Check it out: http://t.co/3TbpnszuLt @HBOboxing @TooFred @trboxing @CarlMoretti

— Dan Rafael (@danrafaelespn) April 10, 2014

HBO’s Max Kellerman believes than Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) is in a good position to defeat WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) this Saturday night and hand him his first loss of his career at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Kellerman likes Pacquiao’s power and speed, and he feels those two factors are going to weigh heavily in him likely beating the 30-year-old light hitting Bradley in their important rematch.

Kellerman also sees it as difficult for Bradley to get a decision this time around if the fight is anywhere close due to Pacquiao getting the shaft last time he fought Bradley in 2012 with two of the judges seeing Bradley as the winner despite Pacquiao having dominated 11 of the 12 rounds.

Video: Pacquiao vs. Bradley – Bob Arum livens up Final Press Conference

04/10/2014 BoxingChannel.tv

Pacquiao vs. Bradley 2 will happen this Saturday, April 12 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, the final pres conference for the main event took place today (Wednesday, April 9) the fighters showed calm, respectful and poised. Top Rank’s CEO, Bob Arum, however, was not shy of showing his discomfort (he was rightfully upset) towards the fact that the MGM Grand has posters and advertisement up for a different fight (Mayweather vs. Maidana) all over the hotel.

Bob Arum made his remarks while MGM executive, Richard Sturm, was sitting right next to him, earlier in the presser Arum introduced Sturm as “president of hanging posters for the wrong fight”.

Pacquiao vs. Bradley will be produced and distributed LIVE by HBO Pay-per-View beginning at 9PM EST/6p.m. PST

Roach: If Pacquiao loses to Bradley, he might need to retire

04/08/2014 Jeff Sorby

Trainer Freddie Roach is saying that his fighter Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) may need to retire from boxing if he loses his fight this Saturday night against WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s). Roach sees the fight as one that the 35-year-old Pacquiao can’t afford to lose.

A defeat in this fight will be Pacquiao’s third loss in his last four fights, and that obviously would have a major effect on his future earning power in terms of his pay-per-view fights.

Bradley: I won’t show any compassion to Pacquiao

07/31/201404/07/2014 Rob Smith

Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) had been bring his ‘A’ game on Saturday night because WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) means business when the two of them meet up on April 12th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Bradley says he’s not going to show any mercy on the aging 35-year-old Filipino fighter, as he sees it as a situation where he’s looking to provide for his family. Bradley won’t let up on Pacquiao this Saturday, and he expects the same from him.

“He [Pacquiao] will get absolutely no compassion from me,” Bradley said via RingTV. “In that ring, it is all about my family eating or his family eating. Manny Pacquiao will have to knock me out to stop my family from eating.”

Pacquiao: I will have to hunt Bradley down

04/06/2014 Jeff Sorby

Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) full expects that he’ll need to go after WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) this Saturday night on April 12th in their rematch at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. After watching Bradley defeat Juan Manuel Marquez last October, Pacquiao realizes that he’s going to need to really go after Bradley if he’s to get him to exchange with him.

Bradley isn’t going to fight the same kind of fight that he did against Ruslan Provodnikov. That was one-time type of fight for Bradley, and he realized afterwards that he cannot fight that same way again if he wants to keep from getting knocked out cold.

Pacquiao-Bradley undercard takes a hit, Roman Martinez drops out

04/07/201404/06/2014 Rob Smith

Former two-time WBO super featherweight champion Roman “Rocky” Martinez has dropped out of his co-feature bout against lightweight contender Raymundo Beltran for this Saturday’s HBO pay-per-view card headlined by Manny Pacquiao vs. Tim Bradley 2 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Martinez is ill, and there’s no way he can take the fight under those conditions.

So instead of Martinez fighting Beltran, another super featherweight, Arash Usmanee (20-1-1, 10 KO’s), has been substituted in Martinez’s place for the co-feature. It’s unclear why Top Rank is matching Beltran against super featherweights instead of fighters from the lightweight division, but I guess the boxing fans paying to see the card on PPV won’t know and won’t care. Roman Martinez is a super featherweight as well, and he was coming off of a knockout loss to Mikey Garcia.

Roach thinks a Khan vs. Pacquiao fight is possible

04/05/2014 Jeff Sorby

Trainer Freddie Roach doesn’t see a Top Rank – Golden Boy Promotions issue as getting in the way of a potential huge money matchup between Manny Pacquiao and Amir Khan in the near future. Roach, who previously trained Khan, says he makes his own decisions about his career, and he thinks that a fight between him and Pacquiao is a definite possibility. Of course, none of this will mean anything if Pacquiao doesn’t win his next fight against WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley on April 12th, and if Khan doesn’t beat Luis Collazo in their fight on May 3rd.

“Khan’s responsible for his own actions,” Roach said to the Telegraph. “Never say never. I’m not so sure it would be in England, even though Manny loves the place. He would want a truck load of money to fight there. It would most likely be in the U.S, if it ever happened.”

Bradley: My fight with Pacquiao won’t go the distance

04/04/201404/03/2014 Kevin Chittenden

WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) isn’t known for his punching power, but he feels that his April 12th rematch with former 8 division world champion Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) is going to end with one of them getting knocked out in front of a large pay-per-view crowd on HBO, and live at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Bradley’s only way of getting a knockout of Pacquiao is if he can catch him with something while he’s running in. Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach practically has him brainwashed with the belief that he’s got to fight for a full 3 minutes of every round. That’s a good plan to follow when you’ve got a younger fighter with a strong chin and not a lot of mileage on him. But Pacquiao is 35, and he’s been in countless difficult fights during his career. He also was knocked out badly by Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012, and not had a hard fight since then.