Why Timothy Bradley should get whatever he asks to fight Manny Pacquiao

In considering opponents for Manny Pacquiao’s next fight, the biggest obstacle to a rematch with Cathedral City’s Timothy Bradley’s asking price. I’m not sure what the number is, but he had turned down a reported $6 million, according to the Pacquiao camp.

When Bradley first fought Pacquiao, it was reported for $5 million, which was the standard purse for Pacquiao’s opponents. And that’s been a generous amount, since Floyd Mayweather reportedly pays his opponents less when they don’t have a pay-per-view market.

Pacquiao lost to Bradley and the decision was controversial because many thought Pacquiao dominated the fight. It caused a huge uproar that’s still written about today, 18 months after the fight. Pacquiao passed on the rematch to fight Juan Manuel Marquez at the end of 2012, where he got knocked out.

So when Pacquiao was considering an opponent in the fall of 2013, they said they offered $6 million that was turned dow. This was after Bradley was coming off his Fight of the Year performance against Ruslan Provodnikov.

All Bradley did in 2013 is solidify his standing among the elite boxers and built a stronger audience. In a year that Showtime analyst Al Bernstein said was the best in the past 25 years, Bradley won the consensus Fight of the Year honors  for his win over Provodnikov.

Now this is all preliminary. It’s still early enough in the new year and I’m sure the Pacquiao camp hasn’t decided who they should fight next. But it looks more and more like it will be Bradley. There’s just not a lot of attractive options for Pacquiao. And Bradley has a perfect record, Fight of the Year honors and the WBO belt.

More: http://voices.mydesert.com/2014/01/15/why-timothy-bradley-should-get-10-million