In considering opponents for Manny Pacquiao?s next fight, the biggest obstacle to a rematch with Cathedral City?s Timothy Bradley is his asking price of $10 million. That is a big hunk of change, so it might be understandable why Pacquiao might want to go after someone else. But don?t call Bradley greedy.
The $10 million price tag was established by Pacquiao?s people when they wrote it in the rematch clause. It was part of the contract the Pacquiao camp wrote up for the 2012 fight agaisnt Bradley. They set the market value on Bradley, who at the time had never fought on pay-per-view and had a smaller audience back then. I?m only guessing that Bradley didn?t really have much say in the money of that contract at the time.
Pacquiao lost to Bradley and the decision was controversial because many thought Pacquiao dominated the fight. It caused a huge uproar that?s still written about today, 18 months after the fight. Pacquiao passed on the rematch to fight Juan Manuel Marquez at the end of 2012, where he got knocked out.
So when Pacquiao was considering an opponent in the fall of 2013, they came to Bradley with a $6 million offer. This was after Bradley was coming off his Fight of the Year performance against Ruslan Provodnikov. Bradley turned him down to take less money to fight Marquez, who Bradley beat.
All Bradley did in 2013 is solidify his standing among the elite boxers and built a stronger audience. In a year that Showtime analysist Al Bernstein said was the best in the past 25 years, Bradley won the concensus Fight of the Year honors for his win over Provodnikov.
So if he was worth offering $10 million back in 2012, why would Bradley take less after his 2013 made him a candidate for Fighter of the Year?
My feeling is the Pacquiao camp doesn?t want a rematch with Bradley because they fear it could be a loss. The Pacquiao fans hammer people who would even suggest that. They say Pacquiao really won, and he doesn?t have to prove anything against Bradley.
But when Floyd Mayweather low-balled Pacquiao in negotiations, they say Floyd lowballed him because he didn?t want the fight, that he?s scared of Pacquiao.
How is that different from what Pacquiao?s camp is doing in negotiations with Bradley?
