Manny Pacquiao vs. Timothy Bradley: 24/7 Is Better Than Expected, Hypes Fight

On June 9th Manny Pacquiao will be defending his WBO crown against Timothy Bradley at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. It is a fight that, for some reason, many people see as a blow out in favor of Pacquiao, and there doesn't seem that there is much buzz for this fight.  

Before the HBO's 24/7 segment for Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley even aired, it was dubbed by many to be boring and in no way being able to outshine that of Floyd Mayweather and Miguel Cotto's segment.

It's the same thing with Manny Pacquiao over and over again, and Timothy Bradley didn't have anything really exciting to add to the mix. He couldn't trash talk, and he didn't do anything overly exciting to make people want to watch the fight.

After last night's episode of 24/7 between Pacquiao and Bradley (part 1, part 2), I have to say that I'm pleasantly surprised that the episode was better than expected. 

In a surprise to many though, it was Bradley and his side that made the episode entertaining more so than Pacquiao and his side. One could say that interest is definitely building for naysayers, and Bradley is building much needed hype to this fight.

Pacquiao's time in 24/7 consisted of him talking about his religious views and explaining why he performed the way he did against Marquez. His wife was also featured talking about his performance and life. The segment tried to paint Pacquiao in a light as a reinvented man after seeing what the distractions in his life did to him and his family, and that he will do nothing but put 100 percent into his training.

His segment also showed one of his new found hobbies of going to the shooting range and firing at some targets. From the footage shown, he didn't look like he was very good, but he's evidently been doing it for about a month.

The real meat of this episode came from Bradley and his team, specifically his father. 

Bradley was portrayed as a hungry fighter who leaves it all in the gym and whose dedication to the sport knows no bounds. He had been boxing for nearly 18 years (this is his professional and amateur career) and had not taken an easy day throughout. 

He trains like a work horse, and with the help of his father, he pushes his body to its physical limit with some crazy exercises. In the episode it shows Bradley working some weights, pushing a giant tire with his father on it to work his legs and recounts a story about how Bradley's father replaced a medicine ball with a rock he found in the desert. 

Bradley's father acted as the motivating force who pushed his son his whole life so that he'd be prepared for any challenge that faced him. He also had a lot of colorful language in the episode that he used to motivate Timothy when training him, which added some humor to the episode.

All in all, this was a great episode and was better than expected. A new fighter was introduced to the 24/7 series that actually brought some interest in the fight. Let's just hope that it can carry on for three more episodes as the fight is in desperate need of hype if it hopes to even come near Mayweather's numbers.