Manny Pacquiao boxing news
(Photo credit: Chris Farina – Top Rank)
MANNY PACQUIAO
“I remember last time believing that I won the first fight against Tim Bradley. I thought I was leading after every round. I thought I won the fight easily. I controlled the fight every round.
“I had a feeling in training camp that he would run from me once he felt my power and he did…after the third or fourth round.
“To be honest, I wasn’t as motivated when I was training for our first fight. I guess I didn’t take him seriously enough.
Floyd Mayweather Sr. thinks the 35-year-old Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) should quit on the spot if he gets beaten in his April 12th rematch against WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mayweather Sr. already has serious questions about how much Pacquiao has left after watching him lose in back to back fights to Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012, but another loss to Bradley will give Mayweather Sr. a clear indication that the Filipino fighter should immediately call it a day to keep himself from fighting on too long.
Honestly, it doesn’t look like Pacquiao will retire even if Bradley does another job on him, because Pacquiao already said he wouldn’t retire if Brandon Rios beat him before their fight last November. Pacquiao didn’t have any problems beating the slow as molasses Rios, but then again he was fighting a former lightweight who had basically eat himself out of the division rather than grew out of it.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum must be smiling like a Cheshire cat right about now with the news that 40-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez has had a change of mind about never wanting to fight Arum’s number 1 money fighter Manny Pacquiao. Well, Marquez isn’t exactly falling all over himself at the thought of fighting Pacquiao for a fifth time, because he feels already beat him 4 times and proved that he’s the superior fighter.
By having Marquez fight Pacquiao in September, Arum will see Pacquiao’s pay-per-view numbers back into the million range where they had been for many years until Arum made the questionable decision to match him up against Brandon Rios and stick the fight in Macao, China instead of the United States.
WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) is still bothered that boxing fans don’t believe he rightfully beat Filipino Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) in their fight in 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada. It bothers Bradley that he’s seen as a paper champion and not a legitimate one in people’s minds because of two judges giving him a close decision that pretty much the entire world disagreed with.
“He is the superstar and he is the icon, the legend,” Bradley said to the Manila Bulletin. “He is still the top dog. I am just happy to get this chance to fight Manny again. I will make it official (this time) to erase it on people’s minds. I am much tougher now.”
“Gentlemen, come out fighting at the bell.” For years we’ve heard that or similar invitations made to two boxers, not two brawlers. When it’s the latter, the public is turned off and turns away from the sport. Ideally, brawling has no place in the sport; although, it’s always been there. In fact, some of boxing’s most popular and colorful boxers weren’t above fracturing a rule or ten. Guys like Harry Greb, Fritzie Zivic, Sandy Saddler, and Two Ton Tony Galento. The modern day list holds more than just a few. We won’t offend individuals by naming them. The truth is some of the best of our current crop of greats, such as Floyd Mayweather, Jr., Bernard Hopkins, and Andre Ward aren’t above cleverly using elbows, forearms, a glove behind the head pulling a man off balance, and the good old noggin. The difference is the men have many other skills to bring about a victory.
Much has been said of late about the plans laid out by Top Rank C.E.O. Bob Arum for Mikey Garcia’s in 2014. All signs point to Yuriorkis Gamboa as the next opponent for Mikey on May 17 according to widely reported stories from Bob Arum and just today 50 cent was on twitter saying it’s basically a done deal.
With Gamboa’s recognizable name in and around the featherweight and lightweight divisions it makes a lot sense.
It doesn’t hurt that the two fighters have been going toe to toe for a while now on twitter which will only help the hype in the lead up for this much talked about matchup.
Another interesting element is that Gamboa can match Garcia in skill and will certainly have the speed advantage come fight night.
Rematches can be momentous or insignificant. The Zale vs Graziano II, Raging Bull vs Sugar Ray (all), or on the other hand the Brown Bomber vs. Conn II, or Marciano vs Jersey Joe II. You just never know. When it comes to Pacquiao vs Bradley II, it would seem fans will be treated to an exciting bout. Bradley is young, and Pacquiao recently demonstrated he can still box pretty well, and both have desire and determination to reach new heights, so it should be a good one.
Andre Ward, who is friends with Timothy “Desert Storm” Bradley offered his opinion that Bradley will win because he wants it more. The only thing wrong with that is Andre doesn’t know how badly Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao wants it.
Bob Arum and Todd duBoef, CEO and President of Top Rank, respectively, and Michael Koncz of MP Promotions are pleased to announce that an agreement was reached today for undefeated two-division world champion TIMOTHY “Desert Storm” BRADLEY to defend his World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight title against Fighter of the Decade Congressman MANNY “Pacman” PACQUIAO. Promoted by Top Rank®, in association with MP Promotions and Tecate, Pacquiao-Bradley 2 will take place, Saturday, April 12, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nev. It will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View.
Both fighters and their teams will embark on a U.S. media tour the week of February 3, including press conferences in Los Angeles and New York on Tuesday, February 4 and Thursday, February 6, respectively. Ticket information and other details on the promotion and the media tour will be released shortly.
Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) and Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) have signed for their rematch on April 12th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. After weeks of negotiations, Bradley and Pacquiao have signed their contracts for what their promoter Bob Arum hopes will be a successful pay-per-view card on HBO. It’s a risky rematch, because the first fight didn’t do well on PPV, but Arum doesn’t have much else to offer other than Bradley or a fight against Ruslan Provodnikov.
Pacquiao will receive $20 million for the fight, which is around the same amount he received for their previous fight in June of 2012. As for Bradley, he’ll be getting a slight bump up in pay to $6 million for the fight plus the upside from PPV. Bradley will likely make as much as $10 million if the fight does well on PPV on HBO.
Manny Pacquiao’s offer of fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr. with the purses from the fight going to charity was originally met with a lot of positive praise from boxing fans around the world. They saw Pacquiao’s offer as a sign that he’s truly a good person that doesn’t care at all about money, and is only interested in helping out the sport of boxing by facing Mayweather for the fans. However, Floyd’s uncle Jeff Mayweather sees through the intentions of Pacquiao and feels that his offer for a charity fight is just another sign of Pacquiao begging for the fight with Floyd Jr.
“How can anything go to charity when you [Pacquiao] owe the tax man $68 million?” Jeff said to Mmaartmartial. “All that was is a new of begging for the fight. That’s all that was. Nobodies fighting for free…Now he’s [Pacquiao] in a situation where he needs Floyd. Floyd doesn’t need you. What does Floyd need your for? Nobody fights for free. That’s just another way of begging.”