On July 16, 2010, fresh off a 12-round unanimous decision victory over Carlos Abregu in his welterweight debut, jr. welterweight champion Timothy Bradley threw the gauntlet down at Manny Pacquiao’s feet in front of millions of boxing fans watching on HBO. “I’m making a challenge right now, baby. Manny Pacquiao, come break down this wall, baby. Manny, come break down this wall. I challenge Manny Pacquiao at 147 pounds,” he remarked during the post-fight interview, making it crystal clear that he was on a mission to get in the ring and test himself against one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. The act was enough to get the attention of Pacquiao’s promoter, Bob Arum, who no doubt immediately went to work trying to figure out a way to sign Bradley.
Immediately following Pacquiao’s unanimous decision victory over Shane Mosley in May of 2011, Arum began to mention Bradley’s name as a future opponent. “I think Bradley will wait to see what happens with Juan Manuel Marquez. He knows a fight with Manny is a lot more lucrative than fighting Khan,” Arum would comment during the post-fight press conference, hinting that a potential clash with Pacquiao was on the table should Bradley choose to turn down a highly-anticipated jr. welterweight title unification with Amir Khan. Although he was still with Gary Shaw Productions at the time, the bait of a Pacquiao fight was too good of an opportunity for Bradly to pass up, so he passed on Khan and sat on the shelf, waiting for his contract with Shaw to expire so he could eventually sign with Top Rank to land the assignment. It didn’t take long for Arum to put those wheels into motion.
By July, rumors were already surfacing that Bradley had agreed to sign with Top Rank. Two months after that, those rumors became official when Bradley signed on the dotted line to become a Top Rank fighter. He was offered a career-high purse, $1,025,000, to face a faded Joel Casamayor on the undercard of Pacquiao vs. Marquez III. It was probably no coincidence that Casamayor, like Pacquiao, is a southpaw. Essentially, it appears as though Pacquiao vs. Bradley is a fight that’s been quietly in the works for the past two years, almost as long as Mayweather vs. Pacquiao. The difference, however, is that unlike Mayweather, Bradley is a Top Rank fighter, so if his wall holds up and Pacquiao is unable to break it down, then at least Bob Arum will retain the services of the man who defeated his cash cow. It’s a scenario that Arum did not have in the past, when he was forced to deal with the fact that one of Don King’s fighters, Felix Trinidad, got the nod in a majority decision victory over Oscar De La Hoya, handing him the first loss of his career. It’s a mistake that Arum does not plan on making again. If Pacquiao is going to get beat, then he’s going to get beat by another Top Rank fighter.
With Bradley’s recent announcement that he officially signed his contract to face Pacquiao, it appears that he will now get the opportunity he was positioning himself for. The question now is whether or not he can back up the challenge he made almost 2 years ago. On June 9th, we’ll find out.
