Pacquiao vs. Bradley: Mayweather Will Get Last Laugh After Snooze Fest

Instead of Pacquiao vs. Mayweather, boxing fans are going to get Mayweather vs. Cotto and Pacquiao vs. Bradley.

And so it goes in boxing these days, where no one truly gets what they want, promoters included.

The best we can do at this point is make the most of it and hope some consolation fights prove to be head-turners.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Miguel Cotto have the potential to give us a good fight. Mayweather is one of the greats of this era while Cotto is a four-time champion in three different weight divisions. Since Cotto's loss to Manny Pacquiao via 12th-round TKO in November 2009, he's gone on to win his next three fights, including a battering of Antonio Margarito in December.

But while Mayweather vs. Cotto may ease the burden of waiting for "The Big Fight,"  Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley will give us a snooze fest.

That's because although Bradley is undefeated in 29 fights, he's simply not in the same class as Pacquiao. He's simply a challenger that fits into Pacquiao's criteria of fighting at 147 pounds, a slow, smaller challenger at that.

This only further rubs it in boxing fans' faces. The pay-per-view for Pacquiao vs. Bradley is expected to be around $55-60. That's laughable and, frankly, disgusting. This is going to be a huge mismatch, the kind of mismatch you get when you don't man up and give the public what it wants to see.

I will say this: Bradley has better defense than Pacquiao and appears to have a pretty good chin. However, as far as skill-set, he's worlds away from the eight-division world champion. He fights a straight-line style that will doom him against ever-so-shifty Pacquiao, who's always moving to gain an advantage on his competitors.

Mayweather vs. Cotto may appease fans for the time being, but once we watch Pacquiao vs. Bradley, the public will again be outraged that the superfight it wants has been substituted with this.