Manny Pacquiao vs. Timothy Bradley likely for June 9th

Hagler's Bald Head wrote:

hardcorebee24 wrote:Bradley looks like a genius for not fighting Khan now.

Eh not really.

No? He just locked up the second biggest fight in boxing and will probably double his exposure and earning potential. He did all of this without taking any risk. From a fans standpoint its a poor way to do business, but Bradley just maximized his earnings by doing nothing. The Khan fight will be there whether he wins or loses.

i agree with hardcores points.the floyd fight i think could be more interesting then we suspect.its to early to make a prediction but ill go with floyd untill cotto proves different in the ring.
the pac bradley fight does not excite me the least but i think if they work on 2 things bradley could win.in fact as of now im leaning towards bradley ever so slightly.just a hunch.

I really want Cotto and Bradley to win.

I think the Pacquiao/Bradley fight will be very entertaining actually. I predict a Pacquiao knockout.

hardcorebee24 wrote:

Hagler's Bald Head wrote:

hardcorebee24 wrote:Bradley looks like a genius for not fighting Khan now.

Eh not really.

No? He just locked up the second biggest fight in boxing and will probably double his exposure and earning potential. He did all of this without taking any risk. From a fans standpoint its a poor way to do business, but Bradley just maximized his earnings by doing nothing. The Khan fight will be there whether he wins or loses.

+1

Add on that he made 1.2 million fighting Casamayor. Bitching out paid off.

Is Bradley faster than Pac?

SlickMoney wrote:

hardcorebee24 wrote:

Hagler's Bald Head wrote:

hardcorebee24 wrote:Bradley looks like a genius for not fighting Khan now.

Eh not really.

No? He just locked up the second biggest fight in boxing and will probably double his exposure and earning potential. He did all of this without taking any risk. From a fans standpoint its a poor way to do business, but Bradley just maximized his earnings by doing nothing. The Khan fight will be there whether he wins or loses.

+1

Add on that he made 1.2 million fighting Casamayor. Bitching out paid off.

That Casamayor fight was a disgrace to boxing.

shaun in some ways bradley is a quick as pac..im rooting for cotto and bradley dispite the fact pac is one of my favorites today.i think both wins will be good for boxing and could result in a 6 fight thing.its a stretch but cotto wins then a alvarez fight which will be huge for the real 154 title.im sure pac n floyd have rematch clauses but hopefully it allows a fight inbetween.floyd hopefully fights marishan or how ever you spell the name.pac is forced to fight the berto-ortiz winner and bradley gets kahn and hes in the drivers seat negotiation wise.then the winners fight each other.dam let that happen.talk about big fights huh.thats why the upsets are good for boxing.

Soonermark890 wrote:Anyone else think this will be boring? I know a lot of you guys think Bradley will do well but I just see this as a one sided beating. Maybe I'm wrong and it will be exciting.

If it's a one sided beating it will still be very exciting. The only way it's boring is if Bradley runs. Both guys like to mix it up and throw punches. Bradley's skilled enough to make it competitive and frustrate Manny. His problem is that when he can't slip, dodge or keep his distance he takes punches flush. And it happens a lot. Pacquiao could get a highlight KO.

I'm not happy with how Bradley got the fight, but I'm happy it's made. Best Pac fight since Cotto and I see it being a similar fight. Bradley can outbox Pac, but if he tries to trade (which he probably will), gets tired (which he probably will), or lets his guard down (which he probably will) Pac will capitalize. Bradley would need to fight a perfect fight to win, but I think regardless it will be exciting.

A lot of good fights shaping up. JMM is the odd man out.

Gumby wrote:I'm not happy with how Bradley got the fight, but I'm happy it's made. Best Pac fight since Cotto and I see it being a similar fight. Bradley can outbox Pac, but if he tries to trade (which he probably will), gets tired (which he probably will), or lets his guard down (which he probably will) Pac will capitalize. Bradley would need to fight a perfect fight to win, but I think regardless it will be exciting.

A lot of good fights shaping up. JMM is the odd man out.

JMM should fight Erik Morales in Mexico City. That would be a mega fight.

JMM has Alvarado or Rios as TR fighters to fight. Guerrero has been crying so maybe he would do a cross promotional fight.

Junior welterweight titleholder Timothy Bradley Jr. and Top Rank, his promoter, wrapped up their deal Friday as he signed a contract to challenge welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao on June 9 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

The match comes as no surprise. Bradley had been one of the leading names to face Pacquiao and although Pacquiao has not yet signed the paperwork, his adviser, Michael Koncz, told ESPN.com on Monday that he had committed to the pay-per-view fight.

Although Bradley will be moving up to the 147-pound division for the fight -- there is no catch weight -- he is about the same size as Pacquiao and has fought in the division before, including two fights ago when he outpointed Luis Carlos Abregu in a nontitle bout in July 2010.

At 28 and in his prime, Bradley, who is fast and skilled but lacks power, probably poses more danger to Pacquiao than any of his recent opponents.

"It's a very tough fight. Stylistically, Timmy poses a real threat," Top Rank president Todd duBoef said. "I think Timmy is an incredibly skilled fighter. He has quick hands, quick feet, he's undefeated and he doesn't know how to lose. Tim Bradley is a winner. Manny will have to be on top of his game against Tim Bradley, who is in his prime. Manny has always taken on those challenges."

Bradley will earn a career-high $5 million minimum purse.

"Manny and his team understand that in order to put on these big events you need the most skilled fighters in the world and competition, and that's why he respects all of his opponents and what they bring to the table," duBoef said.

Bradley was one of five opponents who were in the mix to fight Pacquiao. There was, of course, Floyd Mayweather Jr., whose proposed fight with Pacquiao is the biggest in the sport, but has languished for more than two years as the sides have put one road block in front of each other after another. The prospect of Pacquiao-Mayweather was again put on hold when Mayweather announced earlier this month that he would move up to junior middleweight to challenge titleholder Miguel Cotto on May 5, also at the MGM Grand.

The other opponents Top Rank had discussed with Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KOs), 33, were Juan Manuel Marquez (for a fourth fight), Cotto (for a rematch, although they could never agree on the weight) and junior welterweight titleholders Bradley and Lamont Peterson. Peterson was knocked out of the running recently when Top Rank began discussing a fight between him and Marquez. Ultimately, Peterson signed for a rematch with Amir Khan on Thursday.

With Pacquiao not geared up to fight Marquez in an immediate rematch of their tight fight in November, that left Bradley, who had signed last year with Top Rank with the express purpose of positioning himself for a fight with Pacquiao.

"In Timmy Bradley, you're dealing with an accomplished fighter," duBoef said. "He's a premier fighter in the 140-pound division and he's on everyone's pound-for-pound list in the top 5 to 10. He had a destruction of Peterson (in a one-sided decision in December 2009). He played with Peterson, who just beat Khan, and I was on the other end in that fight because I was Peterson's promoter. Bottom line -- Timmy Bradley is a terrific fighter."

Top Rank put Bradley (28-0, 12 KOs), of Palm Springs, Calif., on the undercard of Pacquiao-Marquez III in November to provide him with exposure on a major pay-per-view card, knowing he might be Pacquiao's next opponent. Although it was a sloppy fight filled with fouls, Bradley dismantled faded former lightweight champion Joel Casamayor and knocked him out in the eighth round.

In January 2011, Bradley unified two belts (one was later stripped) when he won a head butt-induced 10th-round technical decision in a heavily hyped fight against Devon Alexander, that never caught the public fancy, despite so much money being poured into it by HBO.

After the win, Bradley, who had called out for a unification fight with then-titleholder Khan, wound up rejecting a 50-50 deal for a July fight with him for what would have been a career-high payday of at least $1.4 million, in part because he was in the process of breaking from co-promoters Gary Shaw and Ken Thompson. He later signed with Top Rank, which has now delivered him a fight with Pacquiao.

Patience is a virtue. Bradley more than tripled his worth by ducking Khan. Here are 5 million reasons why fighters sign with Top Rank.

hardcorebee24 wrote:Patience is a virtue. Bradley more than tripled his worth by ducking Khan. Here are 5 million reasons why fighters sign with Top Rank.

He could have fought Khan and Pac. He had more than a better chance of beating Khan than Peterson. So he could have had career high payday last summer and likely would have gotten more fighting Pac.

This fight is going to underperform.

Clottey was a nobody, and his fight with Pac got around 700k PPV buys. Which is good, but not great for a big name like Pac. Especially when he's competing with Mayweather as far as drawing power.

I predict the Bradley fight will do similar and maybe even worst PPV numbers. I doubt Arum and HBO will even release the numbers because it'll under perform.

Clottey fight atleast had Jerry Jones and Dallas Stadium to help sell the fight.

Bradley is a total nobody. Hardcore fans know he's a boring, ugly, fighter, and the chances are the fight will be ugly as well.

And if it is and Bradly loses, his career will take a major hit. Look at Clotty after his ugly performance against Pac. He's dropped off the face of the Earth.

GrantZilla wrote:

hardcorebee24 wrote:Patience is a virtue. Bradley more than tripled his worth by ducking Khan. Here are 5 million reasons why fighters sign with Top Rank.

He could have fought Khan and Pac. He had more than a better chance of beating Khan than Peterson. So he could have had career high payday last summer and likely would have gotten more fighting Pac.

This fight is going to underperform.

Clottey was a nobody, and his fight with Pac got around 700k PPV buys. Which is good, but not great for a big name like Pac. Especially when he's competing with Mayweather as far as drawing power.

I predict the Bradley fight will do similar and maybe even worst PPV numbers. I doubt Arum and HBO will even release the numbers because it'll under perform.

Clottey fight atleast had Jerry Jones and Dallas Stadium to help sell the fight.

Bradley is a total nobody. Hardcore fans know he's a boring, ugly, fighter, and the chances are the fight will be ugly as well.

And if it is and Bradly loses, his career will take a major hit. Look at Clotty after his ugly performance against Pac. He's dropped off the face of the Earth.

Disagree completely, first of all 5 million is a nice payday to go away with. That's the fucking lottery. Clottey DIDN'T fight against Pacquiao then got hurt, that's why he went away. Clottey also isn't half the fighter Bradley is. Clottey was never a top ten p4p guy. The Clottey fight is what put Pacquiao into the mainstream stratosphere two years ago because the fight was at Cowboy stadium and a total and utter domination. It did not under perform, Pacquiao was the only draw and as I recall it did about 300,000 more than expected. Pacquiao was not the name he was now and only Floyd and DLH were doing million buy PPV's. He could have just as easily lost to Khan as he could have won. What don't you understand about risk assessment? Sit and make 3.5 million dollars or fight a risky guy that could beat me for 1.4 and go back to half million dollar paydays if I lose? You sit and take the sure thing big dollars. A Khan victory wouln't have gotten him any more money than he just got, a loss to Khan wouldn't have given him the leverage to get even close to 5 million. Take off your fan goggles and put your business goggles on, Bradley made a great choice.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/boxing/2010-03-23-box-pacquiao-ppv_N.htm

When Pac is trying to compete with Mayweather as far as "who's the bigger draw" doing under a million is not going to help his case. Mayweather-Cotto now with Alverez on the undercard is going to blow Pac-Bradley out of the water.

Bradley is a bigger nobody then Clottey. Clottey atleast was coming off a high profile fight against Cotto. Add on gimick of fighting at Dallas Stadium and Jerry Jones promoting the shit out of the fight.

And don't fool yourself. Bradley lucked his way into this fight. Had JMM not price himself out and Cotto didn't tell Pac to go fuck himself over the weight, Bradley would not be fighting Pac.

So don't act like Bradley knew last summer when he bitched out of fighting Khan that he was going to for sure land a Pac fight.

GrantZilla wrote:When Pac is trying to compete with Mayweather as far as "who's the bigger draw" doing under a million is not going to help his case. Mayweather-Cotto now with Alverez on the undercard is going to blow Pac-Bradley out of the water.

Bradley is a bigger nobody then Clottey. Clottey atleast was coming off a high profile fight against Cotto. Add on gimick of fighting at Dallas Stadium and Jerry Jones promoting the shit out of the fight.

And don't fool yourself. Bradley lucked his way into this fight. Had JMM not price himself out and Cotto didn't tell Pac to go fuck himself over the weight, Bradley would not be fighting Pac.

So don't act like Bradley knew last summer when he bitched out of fighting Khan that he was going to for sure land a Pac fight.

When Bradley ducked Khan he said he was waiting for a bigger more lucrative opponent i.e. Pac or Mayweather. He got Pacquiao and a 5 million dollar payday, Pac is guaranteed 22 million it doesn't matter who he fights anymore, he gets paid big money. Your getting away from what I'm talking about anyway with Pacquiao's name and opponent, I'm talking about Bradley and how by waiting for a bigger fight he got richer. He got richer by waiting, case closed. Bradley looks 3.5 million times smarter than he did in July.

hardcorebee24 wrote:When Bradley ducked Khan he said he was waiting for a bigger more lucrative opponent i.e. Pac or Mayweather.

And like I said, he lucked out of landing Pac. Mayweather was not going to fight him. Why? Because he's a fucking nobody. Bradly was option C for Pac. After Cotto and JMM.

If Cotto agreed to the fight, Pac be fighting him and Mayweather be fighting Canelo and who'd Bitch Bradly be fighting? Then after Cotto Arum would have Pac fight JMM again. That's what he's building up to with having JMM fight at Dallas Stadium.

Now are you going to say it's a smart move for guys like Guerrero to call out Pac and Mayweather and wait for a payday? He's as likely to get the fight as Bradley was.

GrantZilla wrote:

hardcorebee24 wrote:When Bradley ducked Khan he said he was waiting for a bigger more lucrative opponent i.e. Pac or Mayweather.

And like I said, he lucked out of landing Pac. Mayweather was not going to fight him. Why? Because he's a fucking nobody. Bradly was option C for Pac. After Cotto and JMM.

If Cotto agreed to the fight, Pac be fighting him and Mayweather be fighting Canelo and who'd Bitch Bradly be fighting? Then after Cotto Arum would have Pac fight JMM again. That's what he's building up to with having JMM fight at Dallas Stadium.

Now are you going to say it's a smart move for guys like Guerrero to call out Pac and Mayweather and wait for a payday? He's as likely to get the fight as Bradley was.

Is it still lucky when you predict it less than a year away?

hardcorebee24 wrote:Is it still lucky when you predict it less than a year away?

Are you disputing that Bradly was the last option for this fight? That Cotto was the first? Are you disagreeing that Arum is planning another fight with JMM as his next fight.

GrantZilla wrote:

hardcorebee24 wrote:Is it still lucky when you predict it less than a year away?

Are you disputing that Bradly was the last option for this fight? That Cotto was the first? Are you disagreeing that Arum is planning another fight with JMM as his next fight.

Are you suggesting that Arum may have told Bradley that he had a 5 million dollar fight for him when he was courting him in July? Are you forgetting that Arum is behind all of this? Are you not understanding that this was probably contrived? Do you not get that Bob will do whatever he can to fuck over Oscar De La Hoya promoter of Amir Khan?

hardcorebee24 wrote:Are you suggesting that Arum may have told Bradley that he had a 5 million dollar fight for him when he was courting him in July? Are you forgetting that Arum is behind all of this? Are you not understanding that this was probably contrived? Do you not get that Bob will do whatever he can to fuck over Oscar De La Hoya promoter of Amir Khan?

This is exactly what's messed up. Boxing shouldn't work this way. I argued with Grant a few weeks ago and defended the UFC because they don't reward duckers. This fight isn't going to have the momentum it should because Bradley hasn't recently beaten a top level opponent. What's Bradley going to do after? Demand $5 million for every fight?

I don't even really blame Bradley. I think his reason for ducking the Khan fight were related to Shaw and not being scared or anything. And you can't blame him for wanting Pac. But he shouldn't have been in the discussion yet. He hasn't earned it. It has the same feeling as when the Seahawks got into the playoffs with an 8-8 record.

Gumby wrote:This is exactly what's messed up. Boxing shouldn't work this way. I argued with Grant a few weeks ago and defended the UFC because they don't reward duckers. This fight isn't going to have the momentum it should because Bradley hasn't recently beaten a top level opponent. What's Bradley going to do after? Demand $5 million for every fight?

This proves my point that boxing is a free market, which you argued against ,and that UFC is a monopoly. Bradley was not happy with his promoter so ditches him and goes with another one. Can not do that in the UFC.

UFC model is nothing new to boxing. International Boxing Club was ran the same way, and it got broken apart because of antitrust and monopoly
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._International_Boxing_Club_of_New_York

hardcorebee24 wrote:

Hagler's Bald Head wrote:

hardcorebee24 wrote:Bradley looks like a genius for not fighting Khan now.

Eh not really.

No? He just locked up the second biggest fight in boxing and will probably double his exposure and earning potential. He did all of this without taking any risk. From a fans standpoint its a poor way to do business, but Bradley just maximized his earnings by doing nothing. The Khan fight will be there whether he wins or loses.

Timmy got lucky, nobody foresaw Floyd coming in to steal one of Manny's opponents nor did we anticipate Marquez pushing Manny to the brink at Welterweight. Bradley's got his fifty pieces of silver but it ain't going to gloss over the fact he ducked his divisional rival.

Anyone will face Manny because they'll earn a career high payday, it doesn't mean they're fearless or a genius.

Look at Clottey, he's been AWOL ever since he fought Manny, we might not see Timmy fight again after this.

Naw, I guess to a few on here we should not care that this clown that can't sell a ticket to save his life is a blatant ducker and is fighting Pac.

We should only care about Bradley and other fighter's paychecks. Why are people on here giving Guerrero shit for calling out Pac and Mayweather? He's as worthy of fighting them as Bitch Bradley.

I do not want to here any of you defending Bitch Bradly complaing about undeserving fighters calling a name fighter out and ducking other fighters.

As I said in another post, let's hope this starts a bigger trends of fighter's ducking good fights to be in-active and waiting for a money fight.

GrantZilla wrote:Naw, I guess to a few on here we should not care that this clown that can't sell a ticket to save his life is a blatant ducker and is fighting Pac.

We should only care about Bradley and other fighter's paychecks. Why are people on here giving Guerrero shit for calling out Pac and Mayweather? He's as worthy of fighting them as Bitch Bradley.

I do not want to here any of you defending Bitch Bradly complaing about undeserving fighters calling a name fighter out and ducking other fighters.

As I said in another post, let's hope this starts a bigger trends of fighter's ducking good fights to be in-active and waiting for a money fight.

Nobody is saying he's worthy from a fans standpoint or from a merit standpoint. I was just pointing out how all of you arm chair promoters, managers and trainers don't know shit about this or any other business. The only business owner on here that I know is Panther and he was the only one besides Slick and Gomez that understood what Bradley and Arum was doing. So keep crying because you were wrong and I'll keep taking your dumb asses to task for it. Grant, just say "Wow I was wrong" don't attack other posters who aren't defending the actions, they're simply pointing out why Bradley did what he did. By the way Bradley will have fights at '40 or '47 if he wins or loses, Clottey is a psycho stubborn maniac that's why he went away.