The Manny Pacquiao vs. Timothy Bradley fight is just about official. Pacquiao’s team has agreed to all of the terms, and now Bradley’s side just has to do the same and sign off on everything.
Pacquiao vs. Bradley will be held on June 9th, in Las Vegas. The bout will be for Pacquiao’s WBO welterweight title, which means Bradley will be moving up to welterweight for the fight. At this time, there does not appear to be a contracted catch-weight for the bout, and considering that both Pacquiao and Bradley are promoted by Top Rank, Bradley signing off on this fight shouldn’t be much of a concern, and everything looks to be settled.
That means that we’ll see Pacquiao vs. Bradley in June, about a month after we see Floyd Mayweather vs. Miguel Cotto.
Obviously fans wanted to see Mayweather vs. Pacquiao first and foremost, and anything besides that is a disappointment. At the end of the day though, both men are facing top 20 pound for pound opponents, and legitimate challenges. Mayweather vs. Cotto is the higher profile of the two fights, and potentially the more exciting of the two as well.
The luster has been removed from Bradley a bit despite his still undefeated and top 10 pound for pound status. His win over Devon Alexander wasn’t compelling to say the least, and he followed that up with a long period of inactivity after turning down a fight against Amir Khan.
But if fight fans know anything about Bradley, it’s that he’s not to be discounted. The guy goes out there and wins, because that’s all he knows how to do.
He won’t be going into the Pacquiao fight hoping for a paycheck and a plane ride home. He’ll be going to win, and he’ll do what it takes to get that done, making it dirty, roughing Pacquiao up on the inside if given the chance, and so forth. Whether or not that results in a win, a close fight, or even just an exciting match is anyone’s encounter.
But that’s what we’ll get on June 9th, Pacquiao vs. Bradley.
