Ethan Miller - Getty Images
Timothy Bradley is close to getting a huge chance against Manny Pacquiao, and Top Rank will meet with the teams this weekend. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Bob Arum will be holding a negotiating session this weekend while in Texas with managers Cameron Dunkin and Michael Koncz during the Chavez vs Rubio event in San Antonio, hoping to at least get close to a deal for a June fight between Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley.
From RingTV.com:
"Michael Koncz and Cameron and everybody will be in San Antonio. We're going there and I'm meeting with Cameron and Michael Koncz to see how far we can go toward wrapping up a Tim Bradley fight," said Arum, who promotes Pacquiao and Bradley.
"We're holding the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. It's not finalized yet, but they're both our fighters, and we're hoping that we can get it done, and we think that we can get it done."
Koncz stresses again that Bradley isn't the only option, mentioning Juan Manuel Marquez and Lamont Peterson, but let's be real: Pacquiao vs Bradley is the only option right now. Arum is hoping to put Marquez and Peterson together for a July fight at Cowboys Stadium.
Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KO) and Bradley (28-0, 12 KO) both last fought on November 12. Pacquiao, of course, escaped with a narrow and debated win over Marquez, while Bradley sent home viewers to the kitchen for a snack during his snoozer against washed-up Joel Casamayor.
Bradley, 28, is a very good opponent for Pacquiao. He's in his prime, he's a good fighter, he's smart, and he's the best 140-pound fighter in the world. Top Rank would no doubt have preferred to hold off on this idea, but it hasn't worked out that way, and Arum and Co. seem to understand that. In a perfect world, they'd have built Tim Bradley up more under their banner (the Casamayor fight was his Top Rank debut) and tried to find him a fanbase and an audience.
But with Miguel Cotto signing to fight Floyd Mayweather, that's just not in the cards. It's going to be Pacquiao vs Bradley unless something big changes.
0 recs | 12 comments
Bradley-Abregu bothers me though
Much like Ricky Hatton, Bradley simply didn’t look like the same fighter in his one foray at 147.
Brickhaus - February 1, 2012 via mobile
Yeah, but Abregu is a 5’10" guy with a 72" reach and I don’t dismiss the idea that maybe Bradley and his team were concerned with his power. Bradley and Pacquiao are probably both just junior welters fighting heavy when they fight any higher, so I think that could offset things. I do question Bradley long term at 147, but Manny seems a proper matchup at the weight IMO.
Scott Christ - February 1, 2012
Agreed....on weights
pakinpower - February 1, 2012
By sheer coincidence, I happened to watch that fight just over an hour ago, and I had the same feeling.
Abregu had the height and reach, as Scott says, but didn’t use them terribly well. I think that Pacquiao can use whatever he has very well, so I think Bradley has a very big potential problem here.
What I wonder about is that to me, and others, Pacquiao seemed not entirely like himself in the Marquez fight, and there may have been signs of decline. I expected a great fight there, not a walkover, but the fight just didn’t go well for Pacquiao.
Bradley is no Marquez, and I don’t think he will or even can win, but if Bradley keeps alive early, it could be competitive for a while. It’ll go 5 rounds.
DrRck - February 1, 2012
You know, however lousy the fight with Casamayor was, Bradley dealt with him well. When an opponent doesn’t throw, you can be made to look a fool, it can throw you off. Fool to take the fight yes, but he still looked good in there fighting a still plank of wood.
APG1 - February 1, 2012 via iPhone app
Nobody has EVER looked good against Casamayor
I even remember Scott pointing this out in the lead-in to the fight. He’s always been a spoiler, even at his best. He made Chico Corrales boring at a time when he was consistently one of the three most exciting fighters in the sport.
Brickhaus - February 1, 2012
Yep. My problem with that fight wasn’t so much that Casamayor sucks now, but that you cannot look good against Casamayor. He won’t let you. The matchmaking in that fight was insane to me. “Here’s our hot new fighter, just signed to Top Rank, and to showcase him we’re matching him against this guy who will do anything to make a fight ugly.”
Scott Christ - February 1, 2012
He didn’t look bad. And that was good.
Look at him now. Ready to make his biggest payday by far.
pakinpower - February 1, 2012
I really have nothing against this fight (in fact, I think it’s a pretty good one really) but let’s not pretend Bradley-Casamayor had much of anything to do with Pac-Bradley getting made. Bradley’s here because he signed with Top Rank, Marquez priced himself out, Floyd is Floyd and Cotto’s gone elsewhere. The Casamayor fight might have opened Bradley up to a bigger audience, but who on earth came away from that thinking they were desperate to see him fight again?!
Oli Goldstein - February 2, 2012
A lot of people will probably ask who Bradley is. When they are told he was the guy that fought before Pacquiao-Marquez, it will likely be met with indifference.
“Oh you mean the fight when we changed it to college football for a while?”
Kory Kitchen - February 2, 2012
From what little I've seen of him...
…Bradley consistently loads up too often with his punches, and he’s generally conventional and predictable, so I think Manny will be hitting him 4-5 times in between his shots.
Wlksrck - February 1, 2012
ok, I slept on it and I'm sold & It'll be a nice scrap
honorablecbm - February 2, 2012 via iPhone app
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