There are many boxing insiders who believe Tim Bradley will give Manny Pacquiao everything he can handle- and then some- when they face off this Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. He?s solid, tough, athletic and he brings in an undefeated record. Combined with Pacquiao?s recent form, even Top Rank?s brass wonders just who will win this contest. But while it could be a tough fight, is it actually a tougher sell to the general public?
Will the general public fork over their $59.95 to see the ?Pac-Man? face a relative unknown, one who brings in an impressive r?sum? but a low Q-rating? He?s an accomplished fighter but that doesn?t always translate into being a good B-side to large pay-per-view events.
Azad Championship Report
Even Bradley admits he?s an anonymous figure to those who aren?t hardcore boxing fans.
?I?m definitely unknown to the public but I think I?m getting more notoriety now because of this fight,? he said, a couple of weeks back while surrounded by various media members at his media day at the Boys and Girls Club of Indio. ?So everyone?s doing their research and definitely searching for my fights online and trying to see who this guy is. So I think [HBO?s] ?24/7? is definitely going to help out with more notoriety and more interest from the public and when they see how hard I train and how we work and see my lifestyle.?
Just being in a fight of this magnitude will make you a trending topic for at least a few weeks.
?Absolutely,? agreed Bradley, who has relished this limelight that has eluded him in the past. ?You?re fighting one of the best in the world, one of the biggest names in boxing- that?s Manny Pacquiao- so of course it?s going to raise my profile. I remember just a couple of weeks ago, I was able to run but right now, I can?t even run on the street anymore because I?m constantly being stopped by locals, supporters and fans. It?s hard to say no to them, especially when I?m working out. It?s kinda tough for me; it?s a double-edged sword. I definitely want to take care of them but I also gotta get my work in.?
Bradley has come off very well on ?24/7,? likable and telegenic, as cameras have followed his every move the past few weeks and months. So is he more of a ?Snooki? or a ?Situation?? He laughs as he hears this question, ?It?s alright; I?m just pretty much being myself and having fun with the cameras. I thought it was going to be worse; I thought I wasn?t going to be able to go to the bathroom or do anything but it?s not like that. So it?s been a lot of fun. I just do my work and they film; that?s it.?
?Desert Storm? has certainly done his job in marketing and promoting this fight. He?s been as accessible and as cooperative as can be (it?s as if he?s craved this type of attention his whole career). But the reality is there is still a bit of a marketability gap as it relates to him that didn?t exist with the likes of Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito and Juan Manuel Marquez.
Bob Arum, who promotes both Pacquiao and Bradley, said while in Indio for Bradley?s media shindig, ?It?s less a marketability gap than it is a recognition gap. People aren?t as familiar as Bradley as they were with Marquez or Shane Mosley. So that is our job, to get people to know Bradley, get to know his accomplishments, see him as a person and see what a great chance he has to win the fight. And that?s what we?re doing and HBO?s doing a fantastic job. I thought that first ?24/7? was very, very good.?
Bradley, unlike most of Pacquiao?s recent opposition, is in the thick of his physical prime. But again, pay-per-view success isn?t necessarily about the quality of fighter but just how recognizable he is to Joe Public. It?s one of the main reasons why Mosley got his shot at Pacquiao last year- people were familiar with him and knew who he was. Pay-per-view is about stars. ?That is generally correct,? said Arum. ?Now, in making this fight, we in effect, had no alternative to do it because Manny?s last two fights were disappointments. I mean, the Mosley fight was horrendous and the Marquez fight, [Pacquiao] barely won and he seemed almost disinterested in that fight. So now, we put him in with a live ?dog- but really a very, very good fighter and he?s going to have to fight his ass off to win on June 9th.?
Tony Walker of HBO Pay-Per-View admits there is a challenge in selling Bradley.
?All fighters have to start somewhere and if you?re good – which Timmy is- the attention will come and he just has to prove himself in the ring. He has all the talent in the ring; he?s a charismatic, nice kid. We think the world of him. We think that if he gives everything that he has to give and performs like he can, the attention will come. So we?re not really worried about that. It always has come for fighters.? But if you go back in history, there was a time when Mosley was very much in the same boat as Bradley, a very talented fighter thought to be a tough sell but eventually, through time and persistence, became a consistent pay-per-view staple as both the A and B-side of the equation. Sometimes, just sticking around and performing at a high level can take you places. ?It takes time for the public to know who a fighter is, not just in the ring but in his general life,? said Walker. ?People want to cheer for people they like and honestly, Manny and Tim have all those attributes, so yeah, it takes some time but it doesn?t have to be forever. It doesn?t have to take several years. Once a guy jumps on the scene, starts performing, people like to see winners and they like to see athletes.?
While there?s a question of Bradley?s marketability, there?s none regarding his likeability. But nothing will help him consistently resonate with the public or his future as a marquee name more than just fighting well- even in defeat. Fight with honor and valor and he?s set for years. Hide behind your gloves all night against Pacquiao the way Joshua Clottey did and you fade into ?Bolivian.?
Pacquiao, alongside Floyd Mayweather, is the pay-per-view titan of boxing. There will always be a certain amount of buys that his promotions will always generate but just how much he goes beyond that point is predicated on who his dance partner is. It?s one of the main reasons why Mayweather chose Cotto and paid him much more than usual for his opponents. And it paid off with 1.5 million buys on May 5th. So yeah, the opponent is important; solo acts are hard to sell in this business.
?You can?t just bring a guy out of nowhere that people have never heard about because they may not necessarily trust what we say. The public has to see the guy, see that he looks the part, acts the part and believe that he has a chance to win. Because when you?re paying for a pay-per-view show, you?re not going to pay for a walkover; you have to believe the guy has a chance to win,? said Walker.
Pacquiao usually does in the 1.1-1.2 million range in terms of pay-per-view buys. Many in the boxing industry wonder if Pacquiao-Bradley will come within spitting distance of that. As June 9th creeps closer, there seems to be some momentum building for this event. A week after the media day in Indio, Arum said from his offices in Las Vegas, ?We have gotten more stuff from more people on Bradley than fighters who are far better known. Maybe that is a blessing because a lot of what these people are doing it is they are informing the public. The public didn?t really know the story and when you talk about Margarito, you talk about Cotto, Mosley; they know the story. It?s nothing new. But with Bradley, they find it new. That?s why you see Bradley all over Yahoo! and CNN is doing an hour show on Bradley.?
Even so, that freshness comes at the expense of brand-name loyalty. But again, with all other options unavailable, Bradley is who Pacquiao and Top Rank eventually settled on. ?What we believed is that Bradley had a compelling story, that we knew he would be accepted as a top-tier fighter and that Manny would essentially have to carry the promotion,? said Arum, who, to his surprise, has found that Bradley actually enjoys the spotlight. ?But Manny has had to do a lot less in carrying the promotion because the attention that Bradley has been getting is really phenomenal. So that?s been a big surprise for us and that?s why we have shifted a lot of the emphasis in the promotion to Bradley because he has resonated well with the public.?
So will this fight do the usual robust Pacquiao figures?
?Mark Taffet [of HBO Pay-Per-View] thinks we?re going to do better,? said Arum, hopeful as ever, ?because we judge a lot on how we?re going to do based on whether the cable companies and the satellite providers are willing to throw money in what we call ?co-op advertising? and they are throwing money like I?ve never seen before. So they really believe that we can get into that stratosphere on this one. For example, it?s not the spots that we run on their systems because that doesn?t cost them anything; we provide the spot. But for example, on the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, we have bought advertising in the top 10 markets and all that advertising that we bought is co-op advertising. So we only pay for a portion of that and the cable systems pay for the rest and that?s been the case. We have a tremendous number of what we call ?co-op dollars.?
?So these guys are hard-boiled business guys and they don?t get emotional about Pacquiao or Mayweather or any other disputes. But they have a good nose as to what?s going to sell and what?s going to bring in business. So we?re very encouraged by how they?re spending on this fight.?
Regardless, this will be the biggest stage Bradley has ever been on. It?s his chance to establish himself as a bona fide star in the sport. It sure beats fighting in ?decrepit barns?- as Arum would say- in supposed big fights that are anything but. This is his chance to introduce himself to the public and stick around awhile.
?Oh, no, Silverdome here, baby,? said Bradley with a broad grin and enthusiasm. ?This is a big show. This is a show against one of the baddest guys in boxing, so I?m happy to be here.?
LIVE DOG
From the very beginning, I?ve thought Bradley was a tough match-up for Pacquiao. Nothing I?ve seen, heard or felt leading into this week has changed that. This will be real challenge for the Filipino icon. Bradley looks to be the bigger guy in there and I think he?ll show that he has much more craftiness to his game than perceived. In my opinion, the key for Bradley is to make sure he changes speeds in there, shuffles the deck and doesn?t become too repetitive. In other words, don?t fall into the trap of doing the same thing over and over again. There are certain points in the fight where I think he?ll have to back off and let Pacquiao come to him and box. At other stages he?ll have to come behind a hard jab, try and work inside and be physical. All the while, Bradley needs to feint often and tuck in that chin.
I think Bradley has a high boxing I.Q. to go along with his impressive physical attributes. He?ll have to exhibit that throughout this fight and realize that at any point, Pacquiao can turn this fight around with one shot. Ostensibly, discretion will be the better part of valor for Bradley.
No, Bradley is not a great puncher but he is a well-rounded, tough, hardnosed guy with competitive character that Pacquiao will have a hard time taking care of. Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have a real prizefight on our hands this weekend.
FOUR WARNED
I thought Showtime?s quadruple-header from the Home Depot Center provided some decent moments. It wasn?t a grand-slam but it wasn?t an ?O-fer? either. I thought Leo Santa Cruz?s star shined the brightest, as he won the IBF bantam belt by beating on Vusi Malinga?s body for 12 rounds. Austin Trout?s points win over Delvin Rodriguez was dreary and Peter Quillin?s victory over Winky Wright had some interesting moments. To top it off, the draw between Antonio Tarver and Lateef Kayode became oddly entertaining in the second half.
Personally, I like this concept because it gave an opportunity to young men like Santa Cruz that otherwise may not have existed. What I would do is in the future with these type of cards is to showcase more talent in the primes of their careers. While Wright was very respectable (in what ended up being his last contest), Tarver?s next appearances on Showtime should be alongside Gus Johnson and Al Bernstein.
But I give Stephen Espinoza and Showtime credit for putting this together. It certainly beats telecasts that have only one live bout. As long as the delicate balance between quality and quantity is adhered to, there is certainly a place for these types of cards.
SEPT 15TH
Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer made it clear on Saturday night that Saul ?Canelo? Alvarez will box as planned September 15th on pay-per-view (the scuttlebutt was that this card would land on either HBO or Showtime) and with James Kirkland coming up with some ridiculous demands (after agreeing to the fight late last week), it looks like whoever has a junior middleweight belt will be on Alvarez?s radar for the near future. Schaefer acknowledged that Trout- who has the WBA strap- is in the running to face ?Canelo? next. The winner of the June 30th rematch between IBF beltholder Cornelius Bundrage and Cory Spinks is a runner-up option. He even mentioned Zaurbek Baysangurov as a future foe, as he holds the WBO title.
The goal is to consolidate all the belts in that division.
It?ll be interesting to see how this plays out. On Friday afternoon, Arum commented, ?We?re going to have a battle with Golden Boy over September 15th. See, we have the pay-per-view date but they?re talking about doing a ?Canelo? fight against whom God knows on Showtime. We?ll be happy to go with [Julio Cesar] Chavez Jr.- [Sergio] Martinez on pay-per-view if we?re ready to go September 15th. I?ll sit down with Lou DiBella and we?ll figure out where we?re going and it may very well be that we opt to go the first weekend in October with that fight in Cowboys Stadium because that?s a ?bye? week for the Cowboys.?
First things first, Chavez Jr. still has to get past Andy Lee on July 16th in El Paso, Texas. As for a fall fight with Martinez, well, seeing is believing.
