Saturday night will see Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez step into the ring on HBO pay-per-view to face each other for a third time. While that is the bout that will sell the PPV to the masses, there are three undercard bouts that will also be shown. Scott Christ of Bad Left Hook, one of the best boxing writers on the planet, takes the time to talk to me about those undercard bouts. You can follow all of his updates on Pacquiao vs. Marquez at Bad Left Hook.
Brent Brookhouse: The biggest name on the undercard both in terms of overall ranking and notoriety is Timothy Bradley. Bradley faces Joel Casamayor in the featured undercard bout. Now, as a guy who was a big Casamayor fan when Joel was in his prime, this fight still seems like a waste to me. I also get the impression that it’s not exactly the kind of bout the boxing media has jumped behind as a legitimate bout for a show of this cost and importance. Is that fair? Is this a legitimate bout in any way?
Scott Christ: Casamayor is 40 years old and hasn’t looked good in a fight since losing his lightweight championship to Juan Manuel Marquez in 2008, which was the first (and to date only) time that the Cuban has been stopped. It’s fair to look at the fight as a serious mismatch in 2011. Casamayor has recently struggled against club fighters, and was routed by Robert Guerrero in 2010. Joel is fighting for money at this point, and has lost all of what made him one of the great overlooked fighters of his generation. Bradley, on the other hand, is 28 years old and in the prime of his career, and is making his debut under the Top Rank banner. But it’s also a curious fight, as Casamayor can ugly up 10 rounds like nobody’s business, and Bradley isn’t known for being a particularly exciting fighter to begin with. Top Rank is pushing the fight as something legitimate, but it really isn’t. They’re hoping most haven’t seen Casamayor in a few years, or don’t even know or care who he is in the first place. And it runs the risk of sucking the life out of the arena if it winds up as bad as it could be.
Brent Brookhouse: Is this a disappointment for Bradley? After having HBO dump a lot of money into and making big commitments with his fight with Devon Alexander in January, this seems like a major step back. Yes, he’s now with Top Rank, but wouldn’t the hope coming off of a fight that was supposed to be so big and have such importance be that Bradley would at least be continuing to headline HBO Championship Boxing cards, not fighting shot Cubans on undercards?
Scott Christ: The opinion of Timothy Bradley among a lot (not all, but a lot) of boxing fans took a pretty big hit this summer when he ducked out of an agreed-upon fight with Amir Khan, so I have to guess he’s just happy being back in the ring at all. He’s fought just two times since 2009, and neither fight was exactly memorable. To get himself on a Pacquiao card is big for him, in part because he’s now believed by many to be the next likely opponent for Manny himself, should all go according to plan. That’s not set in stone, but I think it makes his jump to Top Rank, and the promoter dispute that sidelined the Khan fight, worth it in the end, if it does indeed happen. Plus, Bradley never wanted the Alexander fight in the first place, because he didn’t think it was that big of a fight. Turns out he was correct.
