If Saturday was Manny Pacquiao?s going away party, it was a true buzzkill party, ranking right up there with the surprise birthday bash we had for my buddy after he found out that his girlfriend was cheating on him and gave him the clap. Or, maybe more appropriately, it was the most awful going away party since Floyd Mayweather paired off against Andre Berto last September.
Don?t kid yourself?Pacquiao-Bradley 3 was every bit as cynical and predictably awful as Mayweather-Berto.
Yeah, Bradley is better than Berto, but let?s not go crazy with the acclaim ala HBO announcing crew. Bradley is now 5-3-1 at welterweight (I?m not counting that first sham of a bout with Pacquiao as a win) with four of the five wins coming against porked-up junior welters (Marquez, Provodnikov, Vargas, Rios). Provodnikov supporters would argue that he should be 4-4-1 after his closer than close battle with the Russian.
Even if you rate Bradley as an elite-level welterweight, you have to agree that, stylistically, he?s just not going to beat Pacquiao. Bradley is as tough as nails and always superbly conditioned, but he?s still style-confused to the point of being style-neutral. When he moves, he?s not a mover and when he slugs, he?s not a puncher. To his great credit, he?s been able to have a very successful career on toughness and conditioning alone, but that only goes so far. When asked to improvise and take that next step, there?s just nothing there. Teddy Atlas was never going to inspire Bradley to beat Pacquiao any more than a motivational speaker would be able to inspire a solid trumpet player in a Vegas lounge act to play like Miles Davis. If anything, Bradley?s Atlas-inspired ?aggression? slowed him down enough for Pacquiao to be able to dart in and out, working at a comfortable off-beat rhythm similar to the days when he was juking Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto out of their boxing shoes.
And that takes us back to why this bout was so cynical.
Bob Arum is a genius at matchmaking and he surely saw all of the above. He also knew that this was a rubber match of a series where Bradley had so far won, maybe, six of twenty-four rounds and never once had Pacquiao in any degree of trouble. He knew all of this?and went on to try and sell the fight to you, anyway.
It?s not like there weren?t better and more meaningful fights out there for Pacquiao. Accepting the reality of boxing politics, bouts with Terence Crawford and Kell Brook still could?ve been made. Amir Khan was begging to be a big money B-side and for a brief moment even Adrien Broner was on the table as his management contemplated junking the problematic ?Problem? for scrap. All four opponents would?ve either given Pacquiao a legitimate competitive scrap or fan-satisfying highlight reel KO.
But Arum and Pacquiao?and let?s not forgive Pacquiao?s role in trying to deep fry a turd to serve to you?opted on not only the safer opponent, but on the one that might trick a few buys from casual fans, duped into thinking that Pacquiao was in hard.
Final sales tallies will tell the tale of how well Arum and Pacquiao succeeded in re-selling an inherently defective product. One would hope that a poor buy rate would push Arum (and other promoters) to start putting together PPV shows worthy of PPV money, but we know that won?t ever be the case with this current crop of boxing powerbrokers.
Guys like Arum have learned that they don?t need to respect boxing fans, so they never will. That?s why they continue to hustle the loyal diehard fan and bamboozle the gullible casual-curious. That?s also why, by the way, boxing can never become anything other than a niche sport. Too many hustles and cons, not enough solid product.
As for Timothy Bradley– Yeah, he?s a ?classy? guy and a fighter who will be back in the championship picture soon enough. He just can?t be what he isn?t.
And Manny Pacquiao?
A first ballot Hall of Famer and one of the top fighters of this era deserved a better going away party than what he got Saturday. Unless, of course, he lied and this wasn?t his last fight at all.
