Pacquiao vs. Bradley confirmed

So Manny's last fight will be against Bradley. How does everyone see this fight going, and will there by much interest?

Feels like an unnecessary fight myself.

Not surprised that Bradley's getting another fight with Pacquiao. It should really be his third attempt at trying to get a win, but as he controversially won the first fight they'll no doubt sell this fight as a decider, a fight to see who's really the best.

Also Bradley is an Arum promoted fighter, so as usual, Arum gets to keep everything in house. I would've been surprised to have seen Crawford get the chance, too young and dangerous.

Disappointed that it's not Crawford although I don't think crawford would win would wish he wouldve given him a shot to prove me wrong

Plus side the 2nd fight was closer than the 1st (how bradley won who knows) and pacquiao is coming off a injury so should be competitive and can see if pacquiao has lost a step

2nd fight was fun so I'll watch it again and hope that Manny fights crawford and doesn't bow out on this he should win fairly comfortably

Wasn't excited by the first fight, second fight was quite dull and the third will be more of the same with Pacquiao boxing his way to a UD. Shame really because there really are much better fights out there for both men - I'm not sure what this third fight is proving.

Also - more knowledgeable posters, is Pacquiao some sort of record holder for the same opponents in several fights?

Marquez (4), Barrera (2), Morales (3), Bradley (3) - just seems awfully high.

... About as dull and uninteresting as it gets for me I'm afraid.

Wish it was either Crawford or Khan if I'm honest, but many people thought that Bradley won the first fight, I myself didn't think it was close tbh.

Bradley is coming off a good performance and he has the fireman in his corner who has been bashing Manny constantly, so it will be interesting to see if he can back it all up

I'm still interested in the fight, I rate Bradley as the 2nd best welterweight after Pacquiao.

You say Manny rematches a lot of people, which can also be interpreted as fighting people again who either beat him or give him a close hard fight, surely that is a positive, not a negative

Would much prefer to see both fighting different opponents. Not really sure how they rally viewers round for this as the 2nd fight was dull. There are much more exciting fights out there for both of them. Hopefully this wont be Pacman's last fight.

Manny Pacquiao is a firm believer of the philosophy the best things come in threes (and to be fair to him it was proved right when Marquez hot dog sparked him when he pushed it to four)

Apparently Pacquiao will have another fight in November, the opponent mooted is Crawford, who is apparently fighting Herrera next, which is a great fight as well

BoxingFan88 wrote:You say Manny rematches a lot of people, which can also be interpreted as fighting people again who either beat him or give him a close hard fight, surely that is a positive, not a negative

Oh not at all, just asking of there have been any other boxers who have done it as frequently.

In modern times Zoomy Nelson definitely gives him a run for his money, Jabby. Off the top of my head he went up against Leija four times, Fenech three times (the last one might as well have been a charity exhibition, mind you) and then all of Villasana, Martinez and Ruelas twice apiece. Plenty of re(re, maybe even re)matches there.

Going way back, though, Sam Langford had a total of 72 fights (going from memory, might be a little off) against just five different opponents; Jeannette, McVea, Wills, Clark and Barry.

I can't for the life of me work out how they can sell this fight as Manny's last and I'm still waiting/hoping that Arum will pop up and say "Ner ner, nu ner ner..Just joking!! Manny is actually fighting Crawford next!!"... As much as I like Bradley, he will do his tough guy "Come break down this wall...Ima bust Manny up..." schtick and Manny will do his "I want to show that I still have the killer instinct..." mantra only for the fight to be messy, disjointed and anti-climatic. They just don't mesh well in the ring and I though the nightmare of the whole thing had been banished by the result of the rematch. The PPV's were apparently terrible for that fight too, so I don't understand the business sense of this either??! I'm not even intersted in the Atlas vs Roach sub-plot.

I just think that after being such a fantastic work horse and servant to boxing, it will be a real shame to see Manny drift away from the sport like this. And if Bradley wins, he will have lost 4 out of his last 7 fights.. Think he and the fans deserve better than this. Sad.

Does anyone see Crawford actually troubling Manny

Crawford best win is Gamboa, and gamboa easily won the first 3/4 rounds but crawford was too big and Gamboa was too open/tired. Manny is a bigger, better, fitter version of Gamboa don't see Crawford troubling him.

He wasn't even that good against Burns, a burns who had already looked like he lost a step

I'd prefer Thurman but he's with haymon, and I wouldn't want Broner anywhere near manny he doesn't deserve anything

Marlonz wrote:I can't for the life of me work out how they can sell this fight as Manny's last and I'm still waiting/hoping that Arum will pop up and say "Ner ner, nu ner ner..Just joking!! Manny is actually fighting Crawford next!!"... As much as I like Bradley, he will do his tough guy "Come break down this wall...Ima bust Manny up..." schtick and Manny will do his "I want to show that I still have the killer instinct..." mantra only for the fight to be messy, disjointed and anti-climatic. They just don't mesh well in the ring and I though the nightmare of the whole thing had been banished by the result of the rematch. The PPV's were apparently terrible for that fight too, so I don't understand the business sense of this either??! I'm not even intersted in the Atlas vs Roach sub-plot.

I just think that after being such a fantastic work horse and servant to boxing, it will be a real shame to see Manny drift away from the sport like this. And if Bradley wins, he will have lost 4 out of his last 7 fights.. Think he and the fans deserve better than this. Sad.

He is coming towards the end and off Shoulder surgery though.

I have a sneaking suspicion that Bob Arum is responsible, I think Manny probably wanted someone else and Arum turned it all down, which is probably why its taken so long to announce it

88Chris05 wrote:In modern times Zoomy Nelson definitely gives him a run for his money, Jabby. Off the top of my head he went up against Leija four times, Fenech three times (the last one might as well have been a charity exhibition, mind you) and then all of Villasana, Martinez and Ruelas twice apiece. Plenty of re(re, maybe even re)matches there.

Going way back, though, Sam Langford had a total of 72 fights (going from memory, might be a little off) against just five different opponents; Jeannette, McVea, Wills, Clark and Barry.

This is why i come back here after hiatuses! Thanks Chris, didn't know about Zoomy.

BoxingFan88 wrote:

Marlonz wrote:I can't for the life of me work out how they can sell this fight as Manny's last and I'm still waiting/hoping that Arum will pop up and say "Ner ner, nu ner ner..Just joking!! Manny is actually fighting Crawford next!!"... As much as I like Bradley, he will do his tough guy "Come break down this wall...Ima bust Manny up..." schtick and Manny will do his "I want to show that I still have the killer instinct..." mantra only for the fight to be messy, disjointed and anti-climatic. They just don't mesh well in the ring and I though the nightmare of the whole thing had been banished by the result of the rematch. The PPV's were apparently terrible for that fight too, so I don't understand the business sense of this either??! I'm not even intersted in the Atlas vs Roach sub-plot.

I just think that after being such a fantastic work horse and servant to boxing, it will be a real shame to see Manny drift away from the sport like this. And if Bradley wins, he will have lost 4 out of his last 7 fights.. Think he and the fans deserve better than this. Sad.

He is coming towards the end and off Shoulder surgery though.

I have a sneaking suspicion that Bob Arum is responsible, I think Manny probably wanted someone else and Arum turned it all down, which is probably why its taken so long to announce it

Yep, agree. Arum says he doesn't have the final say, but I can't believe that Manny would delay this long only to announce Bradley after all. I also remember seeing Arum, on his twitter account, bigging up a 3rd fight with Bradley when all the talk (and hope from the fans) was of Pac vs Crawford. I think Crawford would be a great fit for Manny, and should the shoulder have responded well to the surgery, allowed Manny to put on a thrilling performance to go out on. Man... Pac vs Bradley 3??!! No!!!!!!

Arum says that he isn't going to promote this as Pacquiao's last fight because he would look like a "[expletive] huckster".

Only hope that if Pacquiao loses we don't hear the excuse that he never recovered 100% from his shoulder injury, or anything along those lines.

Atila wrote:Arum says that he isn't going to promote this as Pacquiao's last fight because he would look like a "[expletive] huckster".

Only hope that if Pacquiao loses we don't hear the excuse that he never recovered 100% from his shoulder injury, or anything along those lines.

Same here. But people have short memories and we are talking about Bradley here - A man who blamed his performances on ankle/leg injuries TWICE vs Pac and one of those was a "win". So by the same token, I really hope Bradley doesn't mention an "injury" excuse for a 3rd time in a row vs the same opponent!! If he does, I hope fans have the integrity to call him out the way they did Pac after the Floyd fiasco.

I think this fight will get very poor PPV sales. I think the overall reaction to this fight announcement was pretty underwhelming.

There was only a rematch because Bradley was gifted a decision first time round.

Bradley has looked good lately and i think could take Manny by legit decision this time round.

I still don't believe the shoulder injury debacle and was his team's decision to save face for his wide loss.

It's embarrassing how both Manny and Roach have recently still stated they think they were robed against Floyd.

In saying that, Manny has never been a gracious loser i.e. wrong socks against Morales in first fight, cramps against JMM in 3rd fight etc.

Valero's Conscience wrote:I think this fight will get very poor PPV sales.  I think the overall reaction to this fight announcement was pretty underwhelming.

There was only a rematch because Bradley was gifted a decision first time round.

Bradley has looked good lately and i think could take Manny by legit decision this time round.

I still don't believe the shoulder injury debacle and was his team's decision to save face for his wide loss.  

It's embarrassing how both Manny and Roach have recently still stated they think they were robed against Floyd.

In saying that, Manny has never been a gracious loser i.e. wrong socks against Morales in first fight, cramps against JMM in 3rd fight etc.

I don't think they'd appreciate your attempt to expose them

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Night love

The Atlas thing intrigues me. Bradley put in a good game plan against Rios, though Bam Bam lookednl finished. Atlas may refine Bradley coupled with less activity and more age set in for Manny, I think the fight could be closer.

I remember Chris going into the 2nd fight being confident of Bradley winning, but Bradley appearing to box to no real game plan. This next encounter will be very specifically to a gameplan and we could see a big change.

I'm interested.