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Promoter Bob Arum made it official; Manny Pacquiao’s final opponent will be Timothy Bradley on April 9, 2016 in Las Vegas.
Bradley and Pacquiao will be meeting for the third time in their careers, setting up a trilogy after their previous fights in 2012 and 2014.
Bradley won the first meeting with a controversial split decision while Pacquiao took the second meeting with a majority decision.
There has been speculation amongst boxing pundits that Pacquiao would end his career against either Terence Crawford, Amir Khan or maybe even as a longshot, Adrien Broner.
Sadly, Manny has already stated publicly that this will be his last bout as a professional fighter. Which then leads us to this head scratching decision as to why he chose Bradley?
Timothy Bradley is a quality fighter but he did not deserve this fight. Not by a long shot. The pair have fought twice already and neither contest was a particularly compelling match.
The only reason they had a rematch in 2014 was because a majority of the world believed the judges got it terribly wrong in 2012 when they scored the first bout for Bradley over Pacquiao.
Clearly pay-per-view numbers are not an issue for Arum or Pacquiao at this point. They are banking on Pacquiao fans keeping the ship afloat for the farewell tour, which is not guaranteed.
After years of lacklustre opponents for Pacquiao and embarrassing undercard fights, the tide might turn for this farewell fight.
We shall have to wait and see.
