Pacquiao and Bradley have fought twice in the past two years with the first fight going in favor of Bradley in a controversial judges’ decision that shocked boxing fans across the globe. The fight, which did 700,000 buys on pay per-view (PPV), took place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in 2012.
The second fight happened last year in the same venue with Pacquiao avenging his loss by scoring a unanimous decision win which resulted in a higher PPV output at 800,000 buys.
Boxing fans knew the second fight had to happen because of the first fight’s controversial ending as everyone protested what they referred to a flawed scoring by the judges after the fight.
It may be recalled that the judges scored the fight at 115–113, 113–115, and 113–115 with two of them favoring Bradley. The decision was criticized by most media outlets with some of them giving Pacquiao big winning margins over Bradley.
ESPN.com and HBO’s Harold Lederman both scored the fight at 119-109 while almost all media outlets gave Pacquiao a wide margin in their individual scoring.
In the proposed trilogy, boxing fans have nothing to look forward to in terms of changes or issues that need to be settled in another encounter except Bradley’s decision to hire Teddy Atlas, who seems to have made his case when Bradley mauled Brandon Rios to submission last month in Las Vegas.
But Floyd Mayweather’s uncle Jeff Mayweather downplayed Atlas’s initial success with Rios as something that would make a difference in Bradley’s future fights.
In his article on ontheropesboxing.com, writer Robert Brown asked Jeff Mayweather this question: If Timothy Bradley gets a third shot at Manny Pacquiao, how do you think Tim does? Can Teddy Atlas make much of a difference in this fight?
“No, I don’t think so. I thought he got beat both times, he got beat fairly easy both times. I don’t think that Teddy Atlas — or anyone else — can help him win. He may do a little better but at the end of the day, Tim’s been in a lot of wars since the last time they fought. He may have more wear and tear on him than Pacquiao does,” said Jeff, an ex-IBO world titlist.
Asked about people getting carried away after Bradley’s performance over Brandon Rios, Jeff had this to say:
“The one thing is this, for some reason they want to make Freddie Roach greater than what he is, just like when Cotto beat Martinez — who had one leg — next thing they want to do is give Freddie all the praise. Freddie Roach didn’t do nothing, Sergio Martinez couldn’t stand up, he fell on his own. That’s the same thing with Bradley, Rios is finished, he’s a guy that’s been in too many wars and was killing himself making that weight. Rios even said it himself, he said it was time for him to quit. Rios is young but he’s been in so many wars that even he realizes that.”
It now appears that most boxing fans share what Jeff is thinking about Bradley and Atlas in relation to the proposed Pacquiao-Bradley trilogy.
While Pacquiao is reported to have been assured of his usual $20 million guarantee from Arum, the veteran Top Rank promoter may have misread fans thoughts on the proposed trilogy which could greatly affect the fight’s financial viability.
