SONAHR: March 20, 2016 – This month is reserved for hoops fans, as the NCAA college basketball tournament unfolds. While boxing fans can enjoy the drama of March Madness, we can also look forward to an amazing April ? beginning with the April 9 rubber match between WBO welterweight champion Timothy Bradley and Manny Pacquiao. The bout is billed as the finale for Pacquiao, who won titles in a record eight divisions, and shared top pound-for-pound honors with Floyd Mayweather Jr. for many years.
It should be a compelling clash. Both participants have a lot to prove. Along with the desire to go out a winner, Pacquiao wants to erase the bad memories of his disappointing performance in losing to Mayweather last year. And Bradley will be strongly motivated by the need to prove that his controversial win over Pacquiao in their first fight in 2012 was no fluke, and to avenge the defeat Manny inflicted in their 2014 rematch.
A serious-looking Pacquiao graces the cover of the latest issue of The Ring magazine, over the headline ?Pacman?s Last Stand.? Given the drubbing Manny?s reputation took in the wake of the revelation that he went into the mega-million dollar Mayweather bout with a shoulder injury, Pacquiao will answer the bell with fire in his heart and a glint in his eyes. But Bradley is one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the game today, and he has improved under the tutelage of new trainer Teddy Atlas. He is younger than Pacquiao, and has been active while Manny spent a year recuperating from surgery.
These factors will work in Bradley?s favor on April 9. But if Pacquiao can somehow manage to recapture a good portion of the fierce energy that drove his previous dominance, he will leave Bradley in the resin dust. Whatever the outcome, this fight promises to be an event well worth watching.
Also on April 9, newly-crowned IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin makes his first defense against undefeated British sensation Anthony Joshua. Question marks surround this matchup, the main one being: Who are these guys? Earlier this year, Martin won the vacant IBF belt ? stripped from Tyson Fury ? when Vyacheslav Glazkov suffered a knee injury in the third round and couldn?t continue. Martin remained undefeated, but the unsatisfactory outcome didn?t prove much about his ability. Joshua, who won Olympic gold in the super-heavyweight division in 2012, sports a 15-0 record with 15 KOs. It?s a thin resume, but so far Joshua has lived up to his hype. No slouch as a puncher himself, Martin has 21 stoppages in 23 wins, along with a draw. Joshua is a body-beautiful, while Martin?s physique is reminiscent of the flabby heavyweights who cluttered the division in the mid-1980s before Mike Tyson came along. Martin-Joshua is a fight in which anything goes. Joshua should prevail, but not before getting his chin checked.
We?ll have to wait until May 7 to see the next big fight ? Saul (Canelo) Alvarez vs. Amir Khan. Canelo?s WBC and Ring magazine middleweight titles will be on the line, but the bout will be contested at a catchweight of 155 lb. These catchweights are a detestable practice that ought to end ? but probably won?t. Khan, a former title-holder at welterweight and junior-welterweight, lobbied hard for years to score a superfight with Mayweather or Pacquiao. But those bouts were not to be. Instead, he?s got Canelo, who is coming off a big win over Miguel Cotto. That?s some consolation prize. Khan is a gifted boxer with decent power and speed to spare. But he also possesses a glass jaw. Alvarez is a solid puncher and an above-average boxer, and will be the bigger and stronger man even at the catchweight. Sometime during the 12 rounds, he will catch Khan, and that will be the end of it.
So, fellow fight fans, enjoy March Madness. Ring madness will be back soon enough.
