In literary terms, Manny is the subject of Bradley?s greatest chapter?while Timothy is a footnote in Pacquiao?s story?
The trilogy is usually one of boxing?s great story-makers, an epic tale told in three parts. When two men have split victories over a pair of fights, a third battle becomes nearly inevitable. The drama of two great warriors meeting for a final time so that one may establish his superiority over the other is a tale that writes itself. Yet as the third fight between Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley looms close many people are wondering if this story is really in need of another chapter.
This feels like a trilogy that wasn?t really asked for. Separately, these two men can be thrilling. Bradley was in the fight of the year in 2013 when he and Siberian slugger, Ruslan Provodnikov, traded tumultuous moments of near victory and certain defeat. He had moments when he looked to be on the verge of collapsing under the assault of Provodnikov?s fists, only to surge back with sudden, explosive flurries of punches. And the fans? love that has fueled Pacquiao has stemmed from the moments of brutality he has offered so many times throughout his career. Yet this approaching battle hangs blandly on people?s minds.
Manny?s story is well known, and stretches back twenty-one years. Our love affair, however, began in 2003 when he shocked many supposed experts with his dismantling of the great Mexican fighter, Marco Antonio Barrera.
Things stayed high for him when he followed that fight with what is perhaps the most exciting draw in the sport?s history when he went life and death with another great fighter from Mexico, Juan Manuel Marquez. Despite Manny flooring Marquez three times in the first round, the Mexican came back to give us a destructive battle that is still talked about over a decade later, and will likely be discussed a decade from now.
Soon after that he lost to yet another great Mexican, Erik Morales. But that loss was avenged in dramatic fashion first with a stoppage in the tenth round, and then a KO in the third. Add to this, victories over the well respected Ricky Hatton, legendary Oscar De La Hoya, and the Hall-of-Famer Miguel Cotto. People began to offer names like Henry Armstrong, one of the greatest pound-for-pound fighters in history, as comparison for what Manny Pacquiao was doing in the ring.
Then in 2010 things slowed down when he had a string of boring fights and undeserving opponents. An uninspiring Joshua Clottey, a well worn Antonio Margarito, a quickly aging Shane Mosley?these men failed to elicit the same torrid battles for which Manny had become so well know. And audiences took notice. The sultry path he had laid through the sport had fizzled beneath the dull rains of fans? indifference. These fights were followed by a disputed win against his chief rival, Marquez. Capping this less-than-thrilling period of Manny?s career was the disputed loss to Bradley in their first fight. Pacquiao?s reputation was shifting and his fights were no longer the cultural events they had been.
The comparative boredom of his fights ended in a dramatic, violent, and, for Pacquiao, a profoundly bitter way. He suffered a devastating KO loss in his fourth fight to Marquez. It was a dangerous kind of knockout. The drama played out for the television audience as Manny?s sobbing wife fought her way to the ring to be with her unmoving husband whose face lay against the canvas of the ring.
Bradley?s story is less dramatic, but has met with its own share of highs and lows. There was the disputed victory over Pacquiao, the war with Provodnikov, and a well earned victory of Marquez. He nearly blew his win over Jessie Vargas when he got caught with a last minute punch that caused a tremor in his brain.
In the wake of his near disaster against Vargas, Bradley brought on veteran trainer, Teddy Atlas. In his first fight under the care of Atlas, he scored a knockout against the usually tough Brandon Rios. But the result has people wondering about a cause. Was the KO a product of retooling administered by a new trainer; or was it the brought on by Rios?s evident loss of passion?
Despite their interesting, sometimes overlapping, stories, their third fight remains uninspiring to many fight fans. Maybe everyone has had their fill of Pacquiao and they believe it?s time for him to move on. It?s a young man?s sport, and the young men need a chance to step up. Perhaps the two men are just too nice and lack the theatrical rudeness that fuels the promotion of so many modern matches. Maybe people actually believe Pac Man when he says this is his final fight and they find Bradley to be an unworthy last opponent. The first fight was seen as a gift for Bradley, and Pacquiao was the clear winner in the second. In literary terms, Manny is the subject of Bradley?s greatest chapter?while Timothy is a footnote in Pacquiao?s story.
But expectation is by no means a prediction. The lack of interest in this trilogy could prove to be misguided. The two heroes of this drama might just reveal the essences of what has driven them this far. And this hitherto tepid tale might just end with the pathos worthy of an epic story.
