Pacquiao vs. Bradley: Why Super Fight Will End in Disappointment

The boxing world is expecting upstart Tim Bradley (28-0, 12 KOs) to give Manny Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KOs) the fight of his life.

I’m not buying it.

With the recent history between these two, a lackluster bout seems imminent.

This fight is nothing but yet another filler fight that buys more time for a potential showdown against Floyd Mayweather. With Money May set to be behind bars during this June 9 showdown, plenty of storylines will drift in that direction before and directly after the bout.

We all know that boxing officials want them both to be on long winning streaks entering the match, and they will get the benefit of the doubt in any sort of split-decision bout until then.

Bradley is playing the “nobody respects me card,” which is so cliché in the boxing world that I’m surprised his promoters even allow him to spew such nonsense.

His comments in a recent phone interview have almost certainly been uttered word-for-word by another boxer at some point in time (via SFGate.com):

"

Everybody’s overlooking me. Him, his people, the HBO producers, the fans. … It’s a good challenge, but it’s going to be a good challenge for him, too. I am out to prove everybody wrong, and I am definitely using that as fuel going into this fight.

"

Pacman’s last fight had serious intrigue because of how close the previous two fights against Juan Manuel Marquez had been, and Round 3 certainly lived up to the billing. There was some serious history there.

That’s not the case with these two. Bradley is simply trying to become more famous, and Pacquiao seems more interested in subjects like gay marriage less than three weeks before the fight.

The pre-fight hype isn’t living up to the standards set for a Pacquiao bout, but what about in the ring?

With a five-year age gap, Bradley is a bit quicker with his fists. Pacman is the far better technical fighter, and has the big advantage in terms of experience. He has registered 31 more fights in his career and is going to use this to bait Bradley into being the aggressor, and then punish him for it.

While I don’t believe Pacman has trained hard enough to knock Bradley out, I expect a lackluster bout that ends in a technical decision for Pacquiao. Bradley will lose for being overly aggressive, and as soon as the fight is over the Mayweather questions will return in full-force.

Boxing is like Groundhog Day right now, and until the super fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather actually happens, this same cycle will continue to plague the boxing world. 

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