Rather than promoting Manny Pacquiao?s upcoming April 9 pay-per-view bout with Timothy Bradley, many involved with the promotion have been spending time apologizing for it and/or justifying the reason for making it in the first place.
Pacquiao, himself, has passed the buck to Top Rank, telling the world that it was his promoter who chose Bradley, not him. Trainer Freddie Roach has spoken about HBO having a play in the opponent selection process. But Pacquiao adviser Michael Koncz has been most specific about the realities around having to ?settle? on third bout with Bradley.
“It’s not our fault we were running out of options on opponents. That’s the bottom line. So we can only do the best that we can do and it’s not Manny’s fault,” Koncz told GMA News
“Again, my job is to do the best I can do for Manny and unfortunately whether the fans like it or not, that’s in the financial aspect and that’s what I did.?
When selecting an opponent for what Pacquiao says is his final bout, the options were slim. A shortlist of three candidates was frequently mentioned, but the truth is that the list of three was probably a list of two as Khan, according to Roach, was eliminated from consideration by HBO very early on in the selection process. That would?ve left just Bradley and Terence Crawford as April 9 options and, given a choice between Bradley and the very dangerous, but still not bankable Terence Crawford, the Koncz/Pacquiao choice of Bradley was understandable.
But let?s be honest here. Pacquiao?s options were only limited because of promoter Bob Arum?s stubborn insistence on only ?in house? opposition.
There is a plethora of talent in the 140-147 lb. weight range?Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter, Kell Brook, Adrien Broner, Danny Garcia, Lamont Peterson– that would?ve made for an outstanding fight against the retiring legend. The problem is that Arum only wants a fight where he controls both sides of the battle.
And that, right there, is boxing?s biggest current problem in a nutshell.
Everyone with a horse in the race these days is hiding behind exclusive deals with promoters and/or TV networks, looking to keep their investments safe while still trying to build stars. The end result of this network vs. network and promoter vs. promoter nonsense has been the mess we see today where, essentially, the biggest fights in each division are cold-blocked by conflicting fighters? exclusive contracts.
Imagine this happening in other sports. Imagine an NBA where the league was split up in even parts between Fox, ABC, CBS, and NBC?without anyone being allowed to cross over and play a team under contract with a rival network. Now, take that mess of a divided NBA and allow for certain team owners, for whatever reason they choose, to refuse to play against certain other teams within their divided league. Pro basketball would grind to a halt and disgruntled fans would walk away from the sport en masse.
But that?s the mess we have in boxing today, where the current business structure is strangling the life from the sport by allowing for networks to hoard and protect fighters to the detriment of the fans and to those fighters who do, indeed, want to actually fight the very best and pursue the most lucrative fights.
So, really, don?t blame Pacquiao for being caught up in the machine. It?s not in his nature to rock the boat and lash out at those who help guide his career.
Instead, blame the way boxing business is done these days. And, unfortunately, the only remedy for all of this is for boxing to eventually meet its fate and suffer a sudden and devastating financial collapse that will force a proper restructuring.
