READY TO RUMBLE: Pacquiao (left) and Bradley’s bout could be a Classic (GETTY)
By Lee Dover
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, as the old saying goes, but this weekend’s scenes in Sin City are sure to get the whole world talking.
That’s because Las Vegas’ MGM Grand hotel will be host to the highly-anticipated boxing bout between Filipino legend Manny Pacquiao and unbeaten American powerhouse Timothy Bradley.
It is the first match of the year for both, though each have established remarkable records over the years.
Anyone with only an ounce of knowledge about boxing will have heard about Pacquiao and his dominance in the ring in his star-studded career.
The PacMan has taken on just about every competitor on the battleground, and in most cases came out on top.
Bow down
Hector Velazquez, Erik Morales, Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton have all bowed down to the Filipino icon – and all were either put away by knockout or technical knockout.
It is little surprise then that Pacquiao is just 1/6 to walk out of the MGM Grand hotel with his head held high and another victory under his belt.
The PacMan’s trainer Freddie Roach believes that this fight is more important than just the win though, as his star boxer looks to also knock out the critics who questioned his controversial majority decision over Juan Manuel Marquez back in November.
“Manny’s motivation is his last fight,” Roach said. “We had the first bad fight we had in 11 years. He wants to prove to the world he’s not washed up.”
Everything seems to be falling in line for a happy ending to this chapter of Pacquiao’s life, but this is not a fairytale and Bradley is surely to prove that anything can and does happen.
“I don’t look pretty, I don’t look spectacular, I don’t have that spark. I don’t do that one thing where everyone says ‘wow’. I know I’m going to have to do it in this fight. You could see some greatness on Saturday.”
If these words have got you pumped up to put some money behind Bradley, then you can get odds of 4/1 on the American to do the job.
It could prove cash well spent, as the Desert Storm has won all 28 boxing matches that he has been involved in. These include chalking up victories against Miguel Vazquez, Lamont Peterson and, most recently, Joel Casamayor.
Chomping up the PacMan could be Bradley’s greatest feat of all come Saturday night.
If Pacquiao doesn’t win this he retires. Or at least, he should. There is just nothing to get excited about with Timothy Bradley. He even sounds like he bores himself. That quote is one of the worst pre-fight personal endorsements you will ever hear. All he’s short of doing is using the visualisation of victory employed by Homer Simpson prior to his fight with Drederick Tatum. He has only 1 KO in his last 10 fights and that was against a 39 year old Casamayor. He falls into that boxing mystery of musclemen not being able to dig. The only line of interest will be to see if Pacquio can really dominate, like he did against Margarito, Cotto and De la Hoya. Anything less and the retirement talk will be to the fore.
This fight sums up the lack of available talent to fight Pacquiao, when a former flyweight and light welterweight are fighting for the welterweight championship. Both his and Mayweather’s careers are in danger of going out with whimper.