By Rob Smith: With Manny Pacquiao possibly ready to make his pick this weekend for his December 8th fight, it’s expected that 39-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez will selected by Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum for his next fight. However, this leaves Pacquiao’s recent conqueror WBO welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (29-0, 12 KO’s) out in the cold with no opponent for his next fight. Bradley intentionally waited all this time to see if Pacquiao would want to fight him and he’s now on the verge of having nothing to show for it.
Miguel Cotto won’t be around to fight Bradley, and if he was he wouldn’t waste time fighting this guy. Bradley is going to have to look to defend his World Boxing Organization strap against the best possible contender, unless he’s interested in milking his title agaisnt the lowest rank WBO contender in order to have a better chance of holding onto the WBO strap long enough to get another shot at fighting Pacquiao.
There only a limited amount of options in Bob Arum’s Top Rank stable, meaning that Bradley is almost guaranteed a shot against Pacquiao at some point in the future as long as Bradley remains with Top Rank. Arum likes to put together in house fights with he matches Pacquiao, so Bradley should be getting a crack at the Filipino fighter at some point next year.
By Marcus Richardson: Manny Pacquiao’s options are now greatly limited after Miguel Cotto announced that he’ll be fighting WBA World light middleweight champion Austin Trout on December 1st at Madison Square Garden, in New York. Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum now much choose from Tim Bradley (29-0, 12 KO’s) and Juan Manuel Marquez (54-6-1, 39 KO’s) for Pacquiao’s upcoming fight in December. It’s not even a choice, is it? Arum wants to maximize his fighter Pacquiao’s payday and it seems pretty clear that the only option they have if they want to do that is to fight 39-year-old Marquez next.