Manny Pacquiao: Why Desert Storm Was Awful Opponent Choice by Pac-Man's Camp

Manny Pacquiao's camp is going to regret this one after it's all said and done. The matchup that pits Pacquiao against Timothy "Desert Storm" Bradley will prove to be an awful choice made by PacMan's camp.

Pacquiao's camp has put him in a catch-22 situation of sorts.

If Pacquiao beats Bradley handily, all he did was beat Bradley, who isn't known as one of the top fighters in the world, despite his 28-0-0 record (12 KO). If he barely beats Bradley and the fight goes to a close decision, we'll hear grumblings that Pacquiao is past his prime and well into the twilight of his boxing career.

The worst thing for Pacquiao would be another controversial victory like the one we saw in his fight against Juan Manuel Marquez.

But a Pacquiao loss would make for some interesting tabloids. We probably would never see a Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather fight, and I can imagine we'd hear Mayweather declaring himself as the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet, urging us all to do the same.

Bradley's style also doesn't play well for Pacquiao. He's an extremely effective counter-puncher, just as Marquez is. We saw Marquez bait Pacquiao into throwing wild punches from a distance, parry those punches and hit Pacquiao with a ton of counter-combos over the course of their third bout.

If Bradley begins to land counter-punches, Pacquiao won't be on his feet the entire fight like he was during the Marquez fight. Once the 28-year-old Bradley smells blood, he'll keep coming at Pacquiao. Pacquiao's camp also needs to make sure he looks out for Bradley's head, as "Desert Storm" loves to lean in with his head, which could lead to some Pacquiao bloodshed.

Another huge problem is that this fight isn't going to pull in as man pay-per-view orders as promoter Bob Arum would like it to. While Pacquiao is always a huge draw, he doesn't bring in as many viewers as Mayweather. Money May's fight against Miguel Cotto raked in $94 million in PPV revenue.

Arum shouldn't believe that this fight is going to have the same draw. Maybe if Pacquiao's camp chose to pit him against a less congenial and more polarizing opponent, the boxing world would be much more intrigued by this matchup.

They picked a dangerously hungry fighter to put Pacquiao in the ring against, as Bradley knows that this is the best opportunity he'll ever have to throw his name into the conversation with some of today's best boxers.

He had this to say about Pacquiao, as per ABS-CBNnews.com: "This guy is not invincible. This guy is beatable. (I'm) going to prove it to everybody... That's my main focus, is to follow my gameplan and dominate."

This could be a rough one for Pacquiao on June 9. It could signify the decline of the Filipino legend. And it would be all thanks to a poor choice in opponent by his camp.