Is Tim Bradley pricing himself out for the Pacquiao fight?

bradley17 - CopyThe negotiations between Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) and WBO welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) are dragging out a lot longer than what many boxing experts expected it to for their proposed April 12th rematch at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. According to Steve Kim, Bradley is asking for an $8 million guarantee for the rematch with Pacquiao, which is above the $5 million that he received in their previous fight in June of 2012.

That fight brought in close to 900,000 PPV buys. But with Pacquiao losing that one, and then getting stopped by Juan Manuel Marquez in December of 2012, the interest in Pacquiao’s fights may have dropped off with boxing fans. His last fight against Brandon Rios brought in just 475,000 PPV buys.

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Will Arum free Pacquiao so he can fight Mayweather?

arum3432Manny Pacquiao’s lawyer Franklin Gacal Jr. thinks Bob Arum of Top Rank should be a good one and free Manny Pacquiao up from the remainder of his contract with Top Rank so that Pacquiao can fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a history-making bout in 2014. Pacquiao is still under contract with Arum for the whole of 2014, and as long as he’s with him, Mayweather will not agree to fight Pacquiao.

Would Arum agree to let Pacquiao leave Top Rank for the good of Pacquiao? There’s no question that a Mayweather fight would be a big boost for Pacquiao’s career right now. He’s lost 2 out of his last 3 fights, his last fight against Arum’s fighter Brandon Rios was disappointment in bringing in only 475,000 pay-perv-view buys. Arum says fans weren’t interested because the fight took place in Macao, China instead of the United States. Getting beaten in back to back fights probably didn’t help Manny any.

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Arum: Pacquiao may renew contract [with Top Rank] past 2015

pac8787If you were one of the fans who were hoping that Manny Pacquiao would leave Top Rank when his contract expires with them at the end of 2014, you might not be happy to read the news from Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, who is saying that Pacquiao may re-sign with Top Rank to stay with them beyond 2015. This could mean a 2-year contract or possibly even longer.

“I just had a good meeting with Michael [Koncz] yesterday, and I’ll leave it at that,” said Arum via RingTV. “I have a contract with Manny, and he’s saying that we may very well renew the contract past 2015.”

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Rafael: Pacquiao is near the end; Top Rank wants Mikey Garcia as a PPV guy

pac6766 (2)This past week Bob Arum of Top Rank mentioned that he’s interested in having Mikey Garcia (33-0, 28 KO’s), the current WBO super featherweight champion, facing his No.1 star Manny Pacquiao once Mikey moves up in weight in the future. The fact that Arum is talking about this fight tells you that we can expect that fight to happen very, very soon. Arum doesn’t have another pay-per-view presence in his Top Rank stable, and the 35-year-old Pacquiao is about the end of the line as a PPV guy in a year or two.

We’re already seeing Pacquiao’s PPV numbers diminishing with his last fight against Brandon Rios. Was that just an aberration as a result of Pacquiao fighting in Macao, China, or a signal that fans are growing weary of him?

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Arum wants Bradley-Marquez rematch, if Pacquiao selects Provodnikov for next fight

bradley#1If Manny Pacquiao chooses not to fight WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley in a rematch on April 12th, and instead face his former sparring partner Ruslan Provodnikov, then Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum is interested in putting together a rematch between Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez. Presumably the Bradley-Marquez fight would then be the co-feature for Pacquiao’s bout against Provodnikov in April.

It makes a lot of sense to have Marquez on the card, because without Marquez, who Arum wanted to face Pacquiao in a 5th fight, Pacquiao’s next fight might not bring in the huge pay-per-view numbers that he’s been accustomed to getting in the past when matched against Marquez and Miguel Cotto. Arum has struck out when matching Pacquiao against Bradley, Joshua Clottey and Brandon Rios in getting big PPV numbers.

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Mayweather/Pacquiao Mega Fight Updates: It’s all Lies and Hype!

pac-mayI have been receiving a lot of messages and reading a lot of posts about Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao finally setting a day to fight in the fall of 2014. The primary source for much of the Mayweather vs Pacquiao hype is the Youtube Boxing channel, 78Sports TV. The Youtube channel garnered reliability based on it’s announcement of Floyd fighting Guerrero and Canelo before these matches became official in 2013. Well, just this week, both Floyd and Pacquiao’s camp have issued statements saying these are all lies. Who are we to believe?

For this fight to happen, a couple of different things need to be played out first. Above everything else, the big ego’s of both camps need to be checked. This has been a problem in the past as both camps demand more money and/or control in dictating contracts. Both are great, I get that. But let’s recall when Floyd offered Manny Pacquiao $40 million for a fight and Pacquiao demanded a 50/50 split. When one comes with an offer, it simply is not good enough because it is coming from the opponent. Both camps like to call the shots and so they refuse to take the back seat to each other. I suggest these two drive a tandem bike or figure a way to be equals for the sake of the fight. Perfect worlds don’t exist though…

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Mikey Garcia a future opponent for Pacquiao, says Arum

garcia564 (2)While WBO super featherweight champion Mikey Garcia (33-0, 28 KO’s) still hasn’t even proven that he’s the best fighter in the 130 lb. division, that’s not keeping his promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank planning on matching the skinny Mikey up against his cash cow fighter Manny Pacquiao in the near future. Arum hasn’t given a date for when he wants to match the 26-year-old Mikey with Pacquiao, but don’t be surprised if it happens really soon if Pacquiao decides to leave Top Rank. His contract is up with the company this year, and anything is possible if this is his final year with them.

“I wouldn’t be surprised as he [Mikey Garcia] gets older to move up to 140 and possibly fight Manny Pacquiao,” Arum said.

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Bradley and Provodnikov still front runners for Pacquiao’s April fight, says Arum

bradley777Manny Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum hasn’t changed his mind about his desire to have Pacquiao fight either Tim Bradley or Ruslan Provodnikov in his next fight on April 12th. The only change that Arum has made is he’s stopped mentioning 40-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez as one of three candidates for the fight because of Marquez repeatedly saying that he doesn’t have any interest in ever facing Pacquiao again after having fought him 4 times.

“The two guys that are the front runners are Tim Bradley and Ruslan Provodnikov,” Arum said.

Arum’s not concerned about Pacquiao drawing low numbers in facing these guys, because he sees the disappointing numbers from Pacquiao’s last fight against Brandon Rios being because the fight took place in Macao, China and not in the U.S.

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Mayweather exposes Pacquiao fight rumors as false

floyd990Floyd Mayweather Jr. says that rumors of him supposedly fighting Manny Pacquiao in September or nothing more than a lie. He has no plans in fighting Pacquiao. The rumors have also been dismissed by Pacquiao’s personal adviser Michael Koncz as being false. It would seem that some site jumped the gun and decided to come up with news of the Mayweather-Pacquiao mega fight without fact.

Pacquiao and Mayweather will likely go in different directions career-wise until either Mayweather becomes more open to working with Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank or until Pacquiao leaves Arum and goes with another promoter. I’m not holding my breath waiting for either of those things to happen. Mayweather doesn’t need to change his mind because he’s making good money fighting all the Golden Boy Promotions fighters, and Pacquiao is making a good living fighting Arum’s Top Rank fighters one after another.

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Mayweather Sr: Pacquiao’s going to get his a** tore up if he faces Floyd Jr.

pac000Floyd Mayweather Sr. thinks Manny Pacquiao has lost his one respected power in the past 4 years since the time he and Floyd Mayweather Jr. were in negotiations for a fight in 2010. Back then, Pacquiao was knocking guys out left and right, and blown out the likes of Miguel Cotto, Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton.

The knockout wins have dried up for Pacquiao with him failing to register a knockout since 2009, and this hasn’t been unobserved by the elder Mayweather Sr. He feels that Pacquiao has lost the only thing that he had going for him – his power – and without that he would have no chance whatsoever against Floyd Jr.

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