Manny Pacquiao proved Saturday night that he remains one of the top pound-for-pound boxers in the world.
He admitted after a relatively easy 12-round victory over Brandon Rios in China that Rios hurt him with a punch early in the fight. The Filipino superstar took Rios’ most powerful punches well enough, however, to win convincingly and reestablish himself in his first fight since Juan Manuel Marquez knocked Pacquiao unconscious nearly a year ago in Las Vegas.
Fighters often aren’t the same after suffering such devastating defeats, but boxing as well as he did against Rios provided evidence Pacquiao will be an exception. Once their mostly uneventful encounter ended, Bob Arum, whose company promotes Pacquiao, announced that he’ll return to the ring April 12.
The two opponents fight fans most want Pacquiao to box, Floyd Mayweather Jr. (45-0, 26 KOs) and Ruslan Provodnikov (23-2, 16 KOs), aren’t realistic options.
Despite provocative statements from representatives for both boxers, Mayweather-Pacquiao probably won’t happen in 2014 for many of the same reasons it hasn’t happened already. An emotional promotional battle between Arum’s Top Rank Inc. and Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, competition between premium cable networks HBO and Showtime and the ability of Mayweather ($40 million-plus) and Pacquiao ($20 million-plus) to make enormous purses for fighting other opponents should keep them from sharing a ring for the foreseeable future.
Russia’s Provodnikov, one of the sport’s emerging action stars, is Pacquiao’s former sparring partner. They share the same trainer, Freddie Roach, and Provodnikov said after Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KOs) beat Rios (31-2-1, 23 KOs) that he wouldn’t fight Pacquiao due to their friendship.
That most likely leaves Timothy Bradley (31-0, 12 KOs) and Marquez (55-7-1, 40 KOs) as Pacquiao’s two most attractive, available opponents.
Bradley beat Marquez by unanimous decision Oct. 12 in Las Vegas, but Pacquiao would be best served fighting Marquez a fifth time before boxing Bradley a second time.
Bradley’s win over Marquez was impressive, but Pacquiao has little reason to battle Bradley again. Outside of Bradley’s family and two misguided judges, virtually no one thinks Bradley deserved the infamous split-decision win against Pacquiao he recorded nearly 18 months ago.
Marquez, however, couldn’t have beaten Pacquiao more definitively than he did by knocking him out with one punch Dec. 8 in Las Vegas. That should be more than enough incentive to push Pacquiao toward meeting Marquez yet again April 12.
