By Rob Smith: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says his fighter former WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacuqiao (54-4-2, 38 KO’s) will be the one making the ultimate decision about who he’ll be facing next rather himself. Pacquiao just lost to unbeaten Tim Bradley by a controversial 12 round decision in Las Vegas.
Initially, Pacquiao was gung ho for a rematch against Bradley, but since then there’s been talk of Pacquiao facing 39-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez next in November instead of Bradley. If that happens, Arum won’t have have any problems with it, as both guys are currently promoted by him and the Marquez fight is easily the bigger money bout compared to a rematch with Bradley.
Arum told examiner.com “I don’t call the shots when it comes to who Manny fights next.. Manny has the final say on who he wants to fight…I will get with him to figure out what we’re going to do next. The trouble with making a Bradley vs. Pacquiao rematch is that the first fight was so one-sided…A fourth fight vs. Marquez is certainly a possibility.”
The Marquez fight makes more sense for another reason as well. Bradley does a lot of moving and once he figured out that Pacquiao had little ability in cutting off the ring in the second half of the fight, Bradley was able to elude Pacquiao fairly easily, even with two injured feet. In a rematch a healthy Bradley would be moving from round one and he could make a very difficult for Pacquiao to land his left hand pot shots or for him to steal the rounds with his flurries in the last 30 seconds.
Bradley also will have be ready to elude Pacquiao in the last part of the round when Pacquiao comes on, because as we saw last time, Pacquiao was unwilling or unable to fight for the full three minutes of every round. Pacquiao for whatever reason was reduced to fighting hard only in the past part of every round. That’s a trick that a lot of aging fighters use, and Bradley will no doubt he ready for that trick in a rematch.
Marquez is an easier option because he’ll mostly just be looking to counter whatever Pacquiao throws. He doesn’t initiate much and he doesn’t use movement. He won’t make Pacquiao use his aging legs to try and cut off the ring.