Manny Pacquiao Is Timothy Bradley’s Preferred Opponent, Not Juan Manuel Marquez

Manny Pacquiao would much rather fight Juan Manuel Marquez than Timothy Bradley, that much we know. From both a financial and legacy standpoint, a fifth showdown against his 39-year-old rival would allow Pacquiao to avenge his recent knockout defeat, all the while securing the biggest pay day imaginable. Whereas all of his bouts with Marquez have done over one million pay-per-view buys, including the last one where he was coming off a loss, Pacquiao’s lone showdown against Bradley did noticeably less in PPV sales.

While Pacquiao clearly has his sights set on a fight against Marquez, Bradley, apparently, really wants another crack at Pacquiao. Despite his pleas to the contrary, clearly the 29-year-old realizes that nobody considers his first win over the Filipino star a win – and he is looking to correct that. Coming off a very impressive victory over Ruslan Provodnikov, Bradley wants to building on the momentum by sending Pacquiao into retirement.


“I prefer Bradley versus Pacquiao over Marquez. I think he could settle a lot of things inside him, he'll beat Pacquiao good this time," Cameron Dunkin, Bradley’s manager, told ESPN recently.

That’s only noteworthy, really, because rarely do fighters ask for guys coming off a loss when they’re coming off a win. Much less a guy coming off two losses. Clearly Bradley sees unfinished business there, and he’s willing to do away with common wisdom if it means rehabilitating his image with all the fans he lost a year ago.

Pacquiao and Marquez will fight this year, but if the Bradley folks saw against Provodnikov was the one who showed up in a rematch versus Pacquiao, it could actually end up being a pretty interesting bout.

Source: ESPN