Do you really think this is Pacquiao’s last fight? As a trainer, would you say Pacquiao has more quality fights in him? Is Pacquiao the best fighter you have ever trained? If not, who are the others?

“I personally don’t know if this will be Manny’s last fight but he is training like it’s going to be his last fight. Manny has achieved so much in his boxing career and if this is going to be his swan song I know he wants to go out blazing with a spectacular performance. He’s pouring everything into this training. If the opportunity for a knockout presents itself during the fight, he’s going to go for it. He knows how to close the show and he wants this show closed with fireworks. He wants to finish the book on his boxing career with a spectacular ending.

“I do think Manny has more quality fights in him. His power, speed, work ethic are still superior to most others.

“Manny is the greatest fighter I have ever worked with. I have never seen another fighter accomplish so much. Forget the raw talent and drive to win, Manny was a great student who never rested on his laurels. He was a sponge who was always willing to learn new things. He challenged me to teach him new things. He made me a better trainer. For me, it’s been an experience unique to Manny. I wish I had a million fighters with as much drive and a willingness to learn new things.”

How much do you believe injuries suffered by Bradley in each of the first two fights against Pacquiao affected the result?

“To put it simply, Bradley’s injuries were a big factor in both fights because they were caused by Manny during each fight. Boxing is the hurt business and when you get hit by Manny the force of his punches produce more damage than just to the area where the punches land. They physically rip you from your core. Frankly, I’m not convinced Bradley has yet to fully recover from his fight with Ruslan Provdnikov. And that’s not a knock. That fight was pure hell. I give him a lot of credit for surviving that battle as I do for winning it and continuing on as he has. He’s a tremendous athlete and a gutsy fighter.”

How much of a concern is Pacquiao’s upcoming senate election in terms of being a distraction heading into this fight? How far can Pacquiao make it in politics in the Philippines?

“It has been no distraction at all. He is all business in the ring and the only thing we discuss is the fight with Bradley. If anything, he seems to be extra motivated to perform well in this fight. In boxing, Manny was an eight-division world champion. No one has ever done that. It’s like Joe DiMaggio’s record for hitting in 56 consecutive games. It will never be broken. In boxing, politics and life, Manny has shown us that anything is possible if you work hard and have faith. He has never been confined by limits.”

As a trainer, how important are the first two fights in terms of breaking down tape when Bradley now has a different trainer that is asking to do things differently, especially against Pacquiao?

“Breaking down tape from the previous two fights is very important because I don’t feel Bradley has changed that much. Sure, we will make some adjustments for the changes his new trainer implemented in the last fight, but as soon as Manny lands some meaningful punches, Bradley will revert back to his old style and that’s what we have to be prepared for. The log in the ocean is going to end up being a log in the buzz saw.”

HBO Sports presents LEGACY ON THE LINE: FROM BRADLEY TO PACQUIAO. Chronicling the lessons and controversies Bradley has endured in his high-profile rivalry with the boxing legend from the Philippines, the special debuts SATURDAY, MARCH 26 (midnight-12:30 a.m. ET/PT) and is narrated by Liev Schreiber.

Pacquiao vs. Bradley takes place Saturday, April 9 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET/ 6:00 p.m. PT.

LOS ANGELES (March 22, 2016) – Undefeated contenders GILBERTO “Zurdo” RAMIREZ, ÓSCAR VALDEZ and JOSE RAMÍREZ, former world champion EVGENY GRADOVICH and Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum hosted a Los Angeles Media Workout on Tuesday at Fortune Gym. The fighters worked out and discussed their upcoming championship fights on the Manny Pacquiao – Timothy Bradley NoTrump pay-per-view undercard (http://lat.ms/1o41mcT).

GILBERTO RAMIREZ
“This is my time. I have a lot of respect for Arthur Abraham. He’s a great champion. I know he’s working hard in training camp as am I. It’s going to be a great fight. I have to be smart in this fight. We are working on keeping the pressure on Abraham by throwing high volumes of punches and staying on top of him. I’m going to be a second skin on him. I feel a great sense of history fighting to become Mexico’s first super middleweight champion. It is a great honor representing my country in this fight. All I am thinking about is April 9. Looking past this fight is meaningless. The future is now.”

ÓSCAR VALDEZ
“My vast amateur background has prepared me to adapt to many different boxing styles. Gradovich is a breakthrough opportunity for me professionally. A victory over him is a big step that will lead me to a world title shot. I’m not feeling any pressure. I want this fight. I have trained my whole life for this fight. I stand up for The President but Donald Trump doesn’t deserve my respect.”

EVGENY GRADOVICH
“I have I lived and breathed this fight since training camp began. It’s all I have thought of. I’m an old school Mexican-style fighter. I love Julio César Chávez, Juan Manuel Márquez, Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales. I know everyone thinks Valdez is the future star of boxing but I love this sport too much to allow him to beat me and move me down. I’m going to start fast and keep my foot on the gas pedal.”

JOSE RAMÍREZ
“It’s a dream come true fighting on a card headlined by a fight between Manny Pacquiao and Tim Bradley. Millions of people around the world will be watching us fight. It’s what I have dreamed of since I first entered a gym as a boy. The fans from the Central Valley have been very loyal to me and I am very loyal to them. I am proud to represent our common causes that mean so much to the farmers, specifically water issues. I used to be a picker. I picked peppers. I want to help bring a tomorrow to the farmers and their families. Everyone counts. I am honored to be a voice for them. They are not alone. I am a first generation American. I was proud to represent the U.S. in the Olympics because of the ideals that are the foundation of this country. Donald Trump lacks the education to understand this and why those ideals make our country is so. I want to show and share the lesson that you can succeed.”

BOB ARUM
“All these fighters here today need to win and win impressively. They do that and the sky is the limit for them. Zurdo’s skill set and size give him an advantage over Abraham who is a strong, tough fighter. I am very proud of this NoTrump undercard and everything it symbolizes.”

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Gilberto Ramirez (33-0, 24 KOs), from Mazatlan, Mexico, co-promoted by Zapari Boxing Promotions, the World Boxing Organization (WBO) No. 1 super middleweight contender and mandatory challenger, will get his first world title shot when he challenges WBO super middleweight champion ARTHUR ABRAHAM (44-4, 29 KOs), of Berlin Germany. Valdez (19-0, 16 KOs), of Nogales, Mexico, the WBO’s No. 1 featherweight contender, will defend his NABO featherweight title against former International Boxing Federation (IBF) featherweight champion Gradovich (21-1-1, 9 KOs), a Russian native who lives in Oxnard, Calif. Jose Ramírez (16-0, 12 KOs), of Avenal, Calif., and a 2012 U.S. Olympian, will defend his World Boxing Council (WBC) Continental America super lightweight title against MANNY PEREZ (25-11-1, 6 KOs), of Denver, CO.

These six warriors boast a combined record of 158-16-2 (96 KOs) — a winning percentage of 90% — with a victory by knockout ratio of 61%.

HBO Sports presents LEGACY ON THE LINE: FROM BRADLEY TO PACQUIAO. Chronicling the lessons and controversies Bradley has endured in his high-profile rivalry with the boxing legend from the Philippines, the special debuts THIS SATURDAY, MARCH 26 (midnight-12:30 a.m. ET/PT) and is narrated by Liev Schreiber.

Promoted by Top Rank®, in association with MP Promotions and Tecate, the Pacquiao vs. Bradley world championship event will take place on Saturday, April 9, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. It will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View® beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT. The Abraham vs. Ramirez world championship fight will be co-promoted by Sauerland Event and Zapari Boxing Promotions.

Remaining Tickets to Pacquiao vs. Bradley world championship event are priced at $1,204, $804, $604, $404, $254 and $154, not including applicable service fees. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000. Tickets are also available for purchase at mgmgrand.com or ticketmaster.com.

For fight updates go to www.toprank.com, www.hbo.com/boxing or www.mgmgrand.com on Facebook at facebook.com/trboxing, facebook.com/trboxeo or facebook.com/hboboxing, and on Twitter at twitter.com/trboxing, twitter.com/trboxeo, or twitter.com/hboboxing. Use the Hashtag #PacBradley to join the conversation on Twitter.

Leading up to the highly anticipated third pay-per-view encounter between elite prizefighters Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley Jr. set for Saturday, April 9 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, HBO Sports presents LEGACY ON THE LINE: FROM BRADLEY TO PACQUIAO. Chronicling the lessons and controversies Bradley has endured in his high-profile rivalry with the boxing legend from the Philippines, the special debuts SATURDAY, MARCH 26 (midnight-12:30 a.m. ET/PT), immediately following a previously announced “HBO World Championship Boxing®” doubleheader, and is narrated by Liev Schreiber.

Other HBO playdates: March 27 (11:15 a.m.), 28 (11:30 a.m., 5:30 a.m.), 30 (6:00 p.m.) and 31 (1:30 p.m.), and April 4 (3:35 p.m.) 6 (11:00 a.m., 11:30 p.m.), 8 (7:15 p.m., 2:00 a.m.) and 9 (5:00 p.m.)

HBO2 playdates: March 29 (9:45 p.m.) and 31 (2:00 p.m.), and April 1 (5:00 p.m., 1:45 a.m.), 2 (1:45 p.m.), 5 (10:30 a.m.), 8 (11:45 p.m.) and 9 (10:30 a.m.)

The show will also be available on HBO NOW, HBO GO® and HBO On Demand®.

After two matchups with future Hall of Famer Manny Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs), welterweight star Timothy Bradley Jr. (33-1-1, 13 KOs) is in pursuit of a legacy. The Palms Springs, Cal., resident experienced frustration and criticism when he scored a controversial split decision win in their first encounter and lost the rematch two years later via unanimous decision, his only loss in 35 professional bouts.
Interviews for LEGACY ON THE LINE: FROM BRADLEY TO PACQUIAO include Timothy Bradley Jr.; Monica Bradley, his wife and business manager; father Ray Bradley; and trainer Teddy Atlas, who has added a new dimension to Bradley’s fighting style.
Widely recognized for its engaging storytelling presentations, HBO Sports has won ten George F. Peabody Awards for production excellence,
For more information, visit www.hbo.com/boxing; become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/HBOBoxing and follow on Twitter and Instagram at @HBOBoxing. Follow the conversation using the hashtag #PacBradley.
Pacquiao vs. Bradley takes place Saturday, April 9 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET/ 6:00 p.m. PT.

By Norm Frauenheim-

Timothy Bradley, a genuine personality in a business often defined by a feint, has a chance to eliminate any questions about an item on his record. He doesn’t have to correct it. A victory over Manny Pacquiao on June 9, 2012 is there and always will be.

No asterisk included.

No apology either.

But the questions, like echoes, are still there from the crazy controversy that raged for weeks after the scorecards awarded him a split decision over Pacquiao. To this day, there aren’t many people who think Bradley won. There are times when it sounds as though Bradley isn’t convinced either.

In a conference call this week, he dropped another hint that says he still has some doubts. In talking about his third fight with Pacquiao on April 9 at Las Vegas MGM Grand, he talked about the bout almost as though it was a chance to beat Pacquiao for the first time.

“It is an opportunity for my kids to talk about years from now with their classmates – that their father beat Manny Pacquiao,’’ he said.

Actually, his kids can say that to their classmates now, but probably not without most of the school shouting them down with the same heated argument that tormented Bradley and his family for too long.

Perhaps, his comment was just a slip. He was answering a question about whether he was weary of fighting Pacquiao.

No, he said, he welcomed a third chance. Then, he hinted at what virtually everyone has believed since those scorecards were announced nearly four years ago. Bradley has never been able to carry off a feint for too long. His genuine nature won’t let him. But it’s more than even that.

There’s a sense that he wants to eliminate some of the questions still in the public mind and perhaps in his own. A victory on April 9 might do that.

“Everyone has their own opinion regarding the first fight,’’ he said. “How ever way you want to look at it, it was a very close fight. The second fight, Pacquiao definitely won that fight hands down.’’

Bradley goes into the third fight with a different trainer in Teddy Atlas and his wife Monica as his manager. He promises Pacquiao will be encountering a much different fighter than the he saw in 2012 and again in a rematch decision over Bradley on April 12, 2014.

“This time around I have a new guy — Teddy Atlas — a guy who analyzes fighters for a living,’’ Bradley said. “That’s what he does — he’s an analyst and a trainer. The approach this time is going to be a lot different and I will be looking to exploit Pacquiao’s weaknesses.’’

The weaknesses have been there, brought on by erosion in speed and perhaps a more cautious nature that is summed by Pacquiao’s failure to score a knockout since 2009.

Pacquiao isn’t the same guy. Then again, neither is Bradley.

In Bradley, however, the most intriguing change might simply be his health. He got injured in each of the first two bouts. In 2012, he won the fight. But the winner was in a wheelchair at the post-fight conference with a fractured left foot and a sprained right ankle. In 2014, the muscle mass in his right calf sustained tears in two places.

It begs a question: What would have happened in the first two if Bradley’s legs had not betrayed him? Of course, there’s another question: Is he just prone to leg injuries and about to suffer another one or three?

But Bradley is confident his legs will carry him to a victory that this nobody will question this time.

He says he was over-trained and under-fed for the first two fights. Under former trainer Joel Diaz, he say he did too much running when he wasn’t in the gym. He also was a vegan. Beans and no beef are a diet without a combo for a fighter in training.

Between the steaks, Bradley says “we don’t run on off days anymore. We don’t do any of that stuff. Everything now just feels like it’s all down to a science the way Teddy’s got this thing orchestrated.”

Orchestrated, perhaps, in a genuine attempt to remove some lingering doubts that are a matter of record.

LOS ANGELES (March 11, 2016) — Fighter of the Decade MANNY “Pacman” PACQUIAO and his Hall of Fame Trainer World-Famous FREDDIE ROACH will soon break camp in General Santos City in the Philippines and head to the U.S. On Monday, at Roach’s Hollywood-based Wild Card Boxing Club, they will begin phase two of training for their sole mission — demolishing two-division world champion TIMOTHY “Desert Storm” BRADLEY JR. Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) and Bradley (33-1-1, 13 KOs) are 29 days away from their date with destiny — their 12-round welterweight battle for pound for pound supremacy.

Team Pacquiao is scheduled to land at Los Angeles International Airport’s Tom Bradley International Terminal Tomorrow! Saturday, March 12, at 5:40 p.m. PT via Philippine Airlines Flight 102. This link will give you updated arrival information. http://www.philippineairlines.com/ (click Flight Status – the blue bar located on the right)

“We had a strong camp in the Philippines and Manny, as usual, is way ahead of schedule in his conditioning, and very motivated,” said Roach. “The real business begins for us on Monday at Wild Card. We have great sparring waiting for Manny. I know that ESPN announcer [Teddy Atlas] who is coaching Bradley is a good story teller and likes acting. Let’s see how well they do when we go off script and hit them with a dose of reality TV. Playing ‘fireman’ isn’t going to protect them from the nuclear assault Manny will be launching.”

This fight will also mark the first time Roach and Atlas have ever faced each other from opposite corners — an amazing fact considering they have a combined 70 years of training experience between them and scores of world champions to their credit. Think their isn’t a little competition between them? Take a look at this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un4lLzHnLUE&feature=youtu.be

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Promoted by Top Rank®, in association with MP Promotions, the Manny Pacquiao – Tim Bradley championship event will take place on Saturday, April 9, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. It will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View® beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT.

The NoTrump pay-per-view undercard will feature World Boxing Organization (WBO) super middleweight world champion “King” ARTHUR ABRAHAM defending his title against undefeated No. 1 contender and mandatory challenger GILBERTO “Zurdo” RAMIREZ, undefeated No. 1 WBO featherweight contender and two-time Mexican Olympian ÓSCAR VALDEZ defending his NABO featherweight title against former International Boxing Federation (IBF) featherweight world champion EVGENY GRADOVICH and 2012 U.S. Olympian JOSE RAMÍREZ defending his World Boxing Council (WBC) Continental Americas super lightweight title against MANNY PEREZ. The Abraham vs. Ramirez world championship fight is co-promoted by Sauerland Event and Zapari Boxing Promotions.

Remaining Tickets to Pacquiao vs. Bradley are priced at $1,204, $804, $604, $404, $254 and $154, not including applicable service fees. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000. Tickets will also be available for purchase at mgmgrand.com or ticketmaster.com.

For fight updates go to toprank.com, hbo.com/boxing or mgmgrand.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/trboxing,, facebook.com/trboxeo or facebook.com/hboboxing, and on Twitter at twitter.com/trboxing, twitter.com/trboxeo, or twitter.com/hboboxing. Use the Hashtags #PacBradley to join the conversation on Twitter.

By Bart Barry

Wednesday HBO released a statement about Manny Pacquiao’s weeks-old statement about the prizefighter’s interpretation of the Bible’s anticipation of the current LGBTQ platform. There is rarely a reason to interrogate press releases from cable networks, but this one seemed portentous: One opened the email thinking HBO, in an incredible expression of solidarity with oppressed persons everywhere, had announced its refusal to condone Pacquiao’s hate speech by cancelling its distribution of the Filipino’s match with Timothy Bradley in April.

Well, no, actually – of course not. Instead, in a manifestation of what groupthink imbecility corporations reduce themselves to whenever trying to accomplish anything different from revenue (like moral judgements), the network decided to condemn Pacquiao’s sincerely held, sincerely stated and sincerely reiterated beliefs by implying, in the insincerest way possible, the network’s endorsement of Pacquiao would continue unabated because of its “obligation to both fighters” – only a network far less scrupulous than HBO, in other words, might punish Bradley for Pacquiao’s ignorance.

But why bother? why now? what could this accomplish? Answer: To illustrate tidily how Donald Trump is, in March, nearer to becoming our 45th President in November than any contemplative person in January imagined he would be.

It’s the insincerity of the HBO statement that rankles, and since HBO is a media company, it should be instructive for us, the large percentage of the country that cannot grasp whence Donald Trump’s popularity derives, to contrast the event of HBO’s statement with the event of Trump’s ascent. Trump embellishes most everything, exaggerates his own record, obfuscates, and often says things he knows are not true, but he never appears insincere. His appeal is his sincerity – his zealous belief in his own greatness; anything might be said in service to it – and his supporters are not the idiots we think they are.

For a few presidential cycles now, the dog-whistle metaphor has been fashionable, likening the insincere and euphemistic bits politicians say to a sound humans cannot hear but puppies can. Probably this sort of analogy first achieved acclaim with Ronald Reagan’s laudable/infamous (depending on one’s region and political bent) States’ Rights speech in Mississippi 36 years ago, a speech that winked at Southern segregationists while giving its speaker all sorts of deniability.

If employing rhetorical irony is saying something that means more than merely the denotative sum of its words, being cynical often is saying something that means nearly the opposite of its literal contents – “all natural ingredients” for instance – and cynicism is inferring from another’s rhetoric its opposite. While the crafters of dog-whistle statements would defend them as irony, Shakespeare’s own mechanics, they rely on the cynicism of their audiences, which in its own tawdry way attributes more talent and imagination to these audiences’ members than outsiders generally do.

What Trump practices is not dog-whistle so much as dog-tail; in all of nature, there are few things as decisively honest as a dog’s tail. A dog does not wag its tail ironically, a dog does not eat food it dislikes then whip its tail sarcastically about, a dog may misunderstand, and a dog may stand bemused by human indecision, but a dog’s tail ever tells the truth. What Trump’s supporters watch is his tail; when he is speaking in circles, when he is contradicting himself, when he is insulting his opponents, when he is effusively praising himself, his supporters ask only one question: Does he believe this? Their support for him as a candidate, not his platform or ideas that are alternately threadbare and frightening and frighteningly threadbare, are proportionate to how enthusiastically his supporters see his tail wagging and subsequently how enthusiastically their own tails wag back.

Well what have we here? This column has now done the unthinkable, likening humans to animals, the sort of ruse that got the congressman from Sarangani Province summarily scolded by blogs across the fruited plane, disowned by an apparel manufacturer notorious for its international labor practices, and called “insensitive, offensive and deplorable” by HBO.

Really, you say, your own tail beginning to stir, a broadcaster stated something that honestly about one of its assets?

Well, no, actually – of course not. Manny is none of these things to HBO on the eve of a broadcasting event with revenue expectations in the millions of dollars; his “recent comments”, you see, those are the insensitive and offensive and deplorable things, not the beloved lad nicknamed Pacman who once eradicated world poverty with yellow gloves (to pick the one ludicrous Pacquiao prefight storyline for which HBO is not responsible).

Saturday after results from the Republican primaries came in, Trump opened the floor to media inquiries by saying, “I would love to take a couple questions from these dishonest people.” It’s no wonder his supporters howled and cheered; much as members of the media may hold them in contempt, much as they may coin ironical terms like “low information” and “poorly educated” as descriptors, Trump supporters hate members of the media all the more, and their surging hatred now sloshes over every abstract and arbitrary barrier, from decency to integrity to education to partisanship.

Trump’s contempt is genuine; he considers his opponents beneath him, and he hates the dishonesty of an electoral/press cycle in which the candidates who purchase the most advertising traditionally receive the most coverage from a media that calls itself independent, unbiased, objective, and fair and balanced. The sole way to disabuse Trump’s supporters of their fervor is to prove in some playful and offhanded manner their man is inauthentic.

That feat, though, would require both authentic spokesmen and media outlets capable of recognizing and disseminating authentic commentary.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

“Next month Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley Jr. are scheduled to meet in a Pay-Per-View bout. We have an obligation to both fighters and, therefore, will proceed to produce and distribute that event. However, we felt it important to leave no uncertainty about our position on Mr. Pacquiao’s recent comments toward the LGBTQ community. We consider them insensitive, offensive and deplorable. HBO has been a proud home to many LGBTQ stories and couldn’t approach this event without clearly voicing our opinion.”

This fight is a dream come true for me. I fought in Hollywood, Florida vs. Edison Miranda, against Andre Dirrell in Detroit and vs. Andre Ward in Carson, California. But the flair of a big-time event was missing. I was at Manny’s fight vs. Shane Mosley at the MGM Grand in 2011 and the atmosphere captured my imagination. Afterwards, it was my wish to one day step into this very ring and on April 9 I will finally get the chance to share the spotlight with the “Pac-Man”. I do not take a win that night for granted, as Gilberto Ramirez is a young upcoming boxer from Mexico, one of the greatest fighting countries. He wants to write history by becoming the first Mexican to win a world championship at super middleweight. But myself being an Armenian, living and fighting out of Germany, I have two values to fight for: pride and honor. I will go into this fight with the following words on my mind: “Mejor morir de pie que vivir arrodillado!” This is going to be my greatest victory. Thank you!

LAS VEGAS, NV (February 10, 2016) — Cinco de Mayo comes one month early with the Manny Pacquiao – Timothy Bradley welterweight championship pay-per-view undercard, which will feature four Hispanic contenders in three title fights. Co-promoted by Sauerland Event and Zapari Boxing Promotions, World Boxing Organization (WBO) super middleweight champion “King” ARTHUR ABRAHAM of Berlin, Germany, will defend his world title against undefeated WBO No. 1 super middleweight contender with the matinee idol looks and mandatory challenger GILBERTO “Zurdo” RAMIREZ of Mazatlan, Mexico, in the co-main event. The undercard will also feature undefeated No. 1 WBO featherweight contender ÓSCAR VALDEZ of Nogales, Mexico, defending his NABO featherweight title against former International Boxing Federation (IBF) featherweight champion EVGENY GRADOVICH. The pay-per-view telecast will open with JOSE RAMÍREZ of Avenal, Calif., risking his undefeated record and World Boxing Council (WBC) Continental Americas super lightweight title against seasoned veteran MANNY PEREZ of Denver, CO.

These six warriors boast a combined record of 158-16-2 (96 KOs) — a winning percentage of 90% — with a victory by knockout ratio of 61%.

Promoted by Top Rank®, in association with MP Promotions, the Pacquiao vs. Bradley championship event will take place on Saturday, April 9, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. It will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View® beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT.

Remaining Tickets to Pacquiao vs. Bradley are priced at $1,204, $804, $604, $404, $254 and $154, not including applicable service fees. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000. Tickets will also be available for purchase at mgmgrand.com or ticketmaster.com.

“Fighting in Las Vegas on the biggest stage of them all is a dream come true for me, and sharing the spotlight with Manny Pacquiao, a true legend of the ring, makes this opportunity even sweeter,” said Abraham. “I have all the motivation I need including the challenge of a young hungry fighter in Gilberto Ramirez. I respect Ramirez and see him as one of the toughest challenges in my career, but I will not be denied a victory in my U.S. breakout fight, and believe my experience will prove too much for him. I promise to deliver a great fight for the American fans, and with another successful defense of my title I will pave the way for a great pay-per-view event and leave the fans screaming for more!”

“I am very happy to finally get my first opportunity to fight for a world title,” said Gilberto Ramirez. “I have worked very hard to get to this point and will work even harder to win the world championship on April 9. I am going up against a great champion and that is why I will prepare myself like I never have before for a fight.”

“I am happy to fight on April 9, I have a difficult opponent on that night but the plan is to get a win and get myself closer to that world title shot that I hunger for,” said Valdez.

“This is going to be an exciting great battle,” said Gradovich. “Óscar Valdez is a very good fighter and I look forward to getting into the ring against him on such a big card with Manny Pacquiao against Tim Bradley in the main event on April 9.”
“I’m excited and honored and feel blessed for this opportunity for myself and my team on one of boxing’s biggest stages,” said Jose Ramírez. “I will be ready for the fans worldwide and I want thank to my manager Rick Mirigian for getting it done.”

“I am very excited for this opportunity from Top Rank. It’s a dream come true to be able to showcase my abilities on such a main stage,” said Perez. “I promise boxing fans I will be 100% ready for the matchup with Jose. I’m ready to show the world who I am.”

“On April 9 we will be presenting three of the top fighters in the world today engaging in significant bouts. All three are of Mexican origin and represent the future of the sport of boxing.

“Jose Ramírez, a star from the Central Valley in California, will box in his first 10-round bout. He is immensely popular in the Central Valley area and is a tremendous attraction at the gate.

“Óscar Valdez, a two-time Mexican Olympian, is considered to be one of the finest fighters in the world. He is in a crossroads fight against former world champion Evgeny Gradovich which will be a true test.

“Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez, the No. 1 super middleweight contender in the world, will fight against long-time champion Arthur Abraham. Gilberto is on a quest to become the first Mexican to win a world championship in this weight division.

“These three fights are all action, complementing the Pacquiao vs Bradley main event which should also be a tremendous battle,” said Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank.

Abraham (44-4, 29 KOs), of Berlin, Germany, is a three-time, two-division world champion. He captured the vacant IBF middleweight world title in 2005 knocking out Kingsley Ikeke in the fifth round. He successfully defended the title 11 times during his four-year reign, which included victories over top-rated contenders Shannan Taylor, Kofi Jantuah, Edison Miranda and former world champion Raul Marquez. Abraham vacated the title in 2009 to move up to the super middleweight division. He dethroned Robert Stieglitz in 2012 via a 12-round unanimous decision to claim the WBO super middleweight title and ending Stieglitz’s three-year reign. After losing the title in his second defense, a 2013 rematch to Stieglitz, Abraham reclaimed the title in 2014, again winning a 12-round unanimous decision over Stieglitz. Abraham has successfully defended the title five times, including a sixth-round TKO of Stieglitz last year.

Ramirez (33-0, 24 KOs), a two-fisted super middleweight wrecking machine who hails from Mazatlan, Mexico, is the top world-rated contender in the WBO and the World Boxing Association (WBA) and is world-rated No. 2 by the WBC. A sensational young contender, Ramirez, 24, has won four of his last seven bouts by knockout. 2014 featured career-best performances which included an NABF and NABO title victory over Giovanni Lorenzo via fifth-round stoppage, a WBO International title knockout victory over Junior Talipeau and a successful defense of his NABF and WBO International titles, stopping Fulgencio Zuniga in the eighth round. Last year he successfully defended his titles via unanimous decisions over once-beaten Maxim Vlasov, division gate keeper Derek Edwards, who boasts a KO victory over world champion Badou Jack, and once-beaten Gevorg Khatchikian, who had scored knockouts in five of his last six victories.

Valdez (19-0, 16 KOs), who represented Mexico in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, was the first Mexican fighter to qualify for two Olympic games and is considered one of the bright lights of the featherweight division and a top prospect in boxing. On the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao – Timothy Bradley welterweight world championship rematch in 2014, Valdez captured the NABF super featherweight junior title, knocking out Adrian Perez in the fourth round. Valdez successfully defended that title twice in 2014, knocking out Noel Echevarria and Alberto Gonzalez in the sixth and seventh rounds, respectively. From Nogales, Sonora, Mexico Valdez, at age 25, Valdez returns to the ring looking to build on the sterling year he had in 2015 where he won all four of his fights — three by knockout. On April 11, he fashioned a third-round blasting of Jose Ramirez in Laredo, Texas. Valdez followed that with his live HBO debut, winning a dominant 10-round unanimous decision over one-time world title challenger Ruben Tamayo on June 27 in Carson, Calif. He ended the year with knockout victories of top-10 contender and one-time world title challenger Chris Avalos and Ernes Sanchez on September 11 and December 12, respectively. The four fighters boasted a combined record of 91-19-5. He is currently the WBO’s No. 1 world-rated featherweight contender.

Gradovich (21-1-1, 9 KOs), a native of Igrim, Russia, fights out of Oxnard, Calif., under the tutelage Robert Garcia, the Boxing Writers Association of America 2012 Trainer of the Year. Known as “El Ruso Mexicano” (The Mexican Russian) for his fan-friendly all-offensive style of fighting, Gradovich captured the IBF featherweight title when he dethroned defending champion Billy Dib in 2013 via a split decision. The exciting fight was televised by ESPN2 which garnered Gradovich legions of new fans. He successfully defended his title four times during his two-year reign, including a ninth-round stoppage of Dib in their rematch, before losing his title last May to Lee Selby via an eighth-round technical decision due to an accidental clash of heads that produced a
deep and bloody gash over Gradovich’s right eye which forced an early stoppage of the fight. The scorecards to that point were in favor of the challenger who became the new world champion. Gradovich has bounced back since that disappointing loss, winning 10-round decisions over Aldimar Santos and Jesus Galicia.

Ramírez (16-0, 12 KOs), from Avenal, Calif. is trained by Hall of Famer Freddie Roach and will prepare for this fight as a sparring partner for Pacquiao. Eight of his last 10 fights have ended with knockout victories. His social activism on behalf of the Central Valley farmers’ water rights has made him an icon in that area where he regularly sells out their largest venues as a fight card headliner. In his last fight, in December, he captured the vacant WBC Continental Americas super lightweight title, winning a unanimous decision over battle-tested Johnny Garcia. A member of the 2012 U.S. Olympic team and an 11-time National Amateur Champion, Ramírez surpassed multi-division world champions Oscar De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Shane Mosley to become USA Boxing’s all-time lightweight record holder.

Perez (25-11-1, 6 KOs), from Denver, CO., is a former NABA super lightweight and WBC Continental Americas featherweight champion. He makes his 2016 debut having won five of his last six fights, including all three of his 2015 fights. Two of his 2015 victories were by knockout, including a sixth-round stoppage of former world champion DeMarcus Corley.

For fight updates go to www.toprank.com, www.hbo.com/boxing or www.mgmgrand.com on Facebook at facebook.com/trboxing, facebook.com/trboxeo or facebook.com/hboboxing, and on Twitter at twitter.com/trboxing, twitter.com/trboxeo, or twitter.com/hboboxing. Use the Hashtag #PacBradley to join the conversation on Twitter.

LAS VEGAS, NV. (February 8, 2016) — They have vastly different backgrounds yet they have two things in common — they will be in title fights on the same April 9 pay-per-view card, and they picked the Denver Broncos to win Super Bowl 50.

Fighter of the Decade MANNY “Pacman” PACQUIAO, seven-time Trainer of the Year World-Famous FREDDIE ROACH, World Boxing Organization (WBO) super middleweight world champion “King” ARTHUR ABRAHAM, former International Boxing Federation (IBF) featherweight world champion EVGENY GRADOVICH and dangerous veteran MANNY PEREZ participated in a Super Bowl 50 boxing celebrity poll last week and all of the above nailed it. They correctly predicted that the Broncos would beat the odds and emerge victorious. Who says experience isn’t the best teacher?

Pacquiao (@MannyPacquiaoTR), who will face five-time world champion TIMOTHY “Desert Storm” BRADLEY JR in the world welterweight championship main event, Tweeted this out today: “After leading the Broncos to their Super Bowl 50 victory, I’m changing my name to Manning Pacquiao. Peyton Manning is an inspiration.”

Roach (@FreddieRoach), Pacquiao’s Hall of Fame trainer Tweeted out: “If Teddy [Atlas] thinks Super Bowl 50 was Cam Newton’s time, he’d better get a new watch. Manny Pacquiao will clean Tim Bradley’s clock on April 9.”

Abraham, who will be defending his world title against undefeated WBO No. 1 contender and mandatory challenger GILBERTO “Zurdo” RAMIREZ, had this to say today from Germany: “I feel like Nostradamus. Get ready for my next prophecy to come true — on April 9, I will beat Ramirez decisively and remain world champion. Ramirez is young, like Cam Newton. I will teach him that experience and an explosive defense wins championships.”

Here are their original predictions and the predictions of their opponents:

MANNY PACQUIAO
“Peyton Manning is a great competitor and with the possibility that this could be his last game I think he will be an inspiration to the Broncos to win and to end Peyton’s career as a world champion. He is certainly an inspiration to me.”

TIM BRADLEY
“It’s very clear to me — Carolina Panthers 31-27.”

FREDDIE ROACH
“I’m going with the Broncos because Peyton Manning, like Manny Pacquiao, has racked up all the records and the victories against superior opposition. Champions like Manning and Pacquiao know only one way to go out in their last rodeo and that’s on top. It’s Manningfest Destiny.”

TEDDY ATLAS (Bradley’s trainer)
“It is Cam Newton’s time as I believe it is Tim Bradley’s and that is why Newton will win a Super Bowl and Bradley, a super championship, while Peyton Manning and Manny Pacquiao both retire after great careers.”

ARTHUR ABRAHAM
“I like the Denver Broncos‘ chances to win Super Bowl 50, I like them a lot! Peyton Manning is one of the all-time greats, the oldest quarterback to lead a team to a Super Bowl berth. With his experience in clutch-time situations, he cannot be denied winning his second championship ring. In addition, the Broncos have had THE best defense all season long, knowing how to penetrate the opposing team for errors. That could be compared to my style of boxing. And nine out of 10 times, a good defense beats a good offense in championships. Watch the Broncos prevail 24 – 17 against Cam Newton’s Panthers.”

GILBERTO RAMIREZ
“The Panthers have an explosive offense and a very strong defense. Carolina 28 to 21.”

MANNY PEREZ
“No. 1 Defense vs. No. 1 Offense. Defense wins games. Denver Broncos 24 to 10.”

JOSE RAMÍREZ (WBC Continental Americas super lightweight champion)
“Panthers because of their momentum. Their confidence as a team and their Quarterback, “Super” Cam Newton, started strong during the season and seem to get stronger. Final score will be Carolina 24-17.”

********************

Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs), of General Santos City, Philippines, boxing’s only eight-division world champion and a two-term Congressman, representing the Sarangani province, collides with two-division world champion Bradley (33-1-1, 13 KOs), of Palm Springs, Calif., in a 12-round world welterweight championship battle. Promoted by Top Rank®, in association with MP Promotions, Pacquiao vs. Bradley will take place Saturday, April, 9, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. It will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View®, beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT. The Abraham vs. Ramirez world championship fight will be co-promoted by Sauerland Event and Zapari Boxing Promotions.

The pay-per-view undercard will feature the following title fights:

Gilberto Ramirez (33-0, 24 KOs), from Mazatlan, Mexico, No. 1 super middleweight contender with the matinee idol looks, will get his first world title shot when he challenges two-division world champion Abraham (44-4, 29 KOs), of Berlin Germany. Valdez (19-0, 16 KOs), of Nogales, Mexico, a two-time Mexican Olympian and the WBO’s No. 1 featherweight contender, will defend his NABO featherweight title against former world featherweight champion Gradovich (21-1-1, 9 KOs), a Russian native who lives in Oxnard, Calif. Jose Ramírez (16-0, 12 KOs), of Avenal, Calif., a 2012 U.S. Olympian, will defend his World Boxing Council (WBC) Continental Americas super lightweight title against Perez (25-11-1, 6 KOs), of Denver, CO, a former WBC Continental Americas champion.

Remaining Tickets to the Pacquiao vs. Bradley world championship event are priced at $1,204, $804, $604, $404, $254 and $154, not including applicable service fees. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000. Tickets are also be available for purchase at mgmgrand.com or ticketmaster.com.

For fight updates go to toprank.com, hbo.com/boxing or mgmgrand.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/trboxing,, facebook.com/trboxeo or facebook.com/hboboxing, and on Twitter at twitter.com/trboxing, twitter.com/trboxeo, or twitter.com/hboboxing. Use the Hashtag

LAS VEGAS, NV (February 3, 2016) — Before they enter the ring for their super brawls, World Boxing Organization (WBO) super middleweight world champion ARTHUR ABRAHAM, undefeated contenders GILBERTO “Zurdo” RAMIREZ, ÓSCAR VALDEZ and JOSE RAMÍREZ, former world champion EVGENY GRADOVICH, and dangerous veteran MANNY PEREZ took time out to make predictions on Super Bowl 50, which will pit the Denver Broncos against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, February 7. The six fighters will be featured in title fights on the Manny Pacquiao – Timothy Bradley world welterweight championship pay-per-view undercard, Saturday, April 9, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Promoted by Top Rank®, in association with MP Promotions, the Pacquiao vs. Bradley world championship event will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View® beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT. Abraham vs. Gilberto Ramirez will be co-promoted by Sauerland Event and Zapari Boxing Promotions.

THE PREDICTIONS

ARTHUR ABRAHAM
“I like the Denver Broncos‘ chances to win Super Bowl 50, I like them a lot! Peyton Manning is one of the all-time greats, the oldest quarterback to lead a team to a Super Bowl berth. With his experience in clutch-time situations, he cannot be denied winning his third championship ring. I n addition, the Broncos have had THE best defense all season long, knowing how to penetrate the opposing team for errors. That could be compared to my style of boxing. And nine out of 10 times, a good defense beats a good offense in championships. Watch the Broncos prevail 24 – 17 against Cam Newton’s Panthers.”

GILBERTO RAMIREZ
“The Panthers have an explosive offense and a very strong defense. Carolina 28 to 21.”

ÓSCAR VALDEZ
“Panthers 30-10 because Denver beat my favorite team, the New England Patriots.”

EVGENY GRADOVICH
“It’s all about the defense as Carolina will quickly find out. Denver Broncos 28-21”

JOSE RAMÍREZ
“Panthers because of their momentum. Their confidence as a team and their Quarterback, “Super” Cam Newton, started strong during the season and seem to get stronger. Final score will be Carolina 24-17″.

MANNY PEREZ
“No. 1 Defense vs. No. 1 Offense. Defense wins games. Denver Broncos 24 to 10.”

Gilberto Ramirez (33-0, 24 KOs), from Mazatlan, Mexico, the WBO No. 1 super middleweight contender and mandatory challenger, will get his first world title shot when he challenges two-division world champion Abraham (44-4, 29 KOs), of Berlin Germany. Valdez (19-0, 16 KOs), of Nogales, Mexico, the WBO’s No. 1 featherweight contender, will defend his NABO featherweight title against former International Boxing Federation (IBF) featherweight champion Gradovich (21-1-1, 9 KOs), a Russian native who lives in Oxnard, Calif. Jose Ramírez (16-0, 12 KOs), of Avenal, Calif., and a 2012 U.S. Olympian, will defend his World Boxing Council (WBC) Continental America super lightweight title against Perez (25-11-1, 6 KOs), of Denver, CO.

These six warriors boast a combined record of 158-16-2 (96 KOs) — a winning percentage of 90% — with a victory by knockout ratio of 61%.

********************

Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs), of General Santos City, Philippines, boxing’s only eight-division world champion and the reigning Fighter of the Decade, collides with five-time world champion Bradley (33-1-1, 13 KOs), of Palm Springs, Calif., in a 12-round world welterweight championship battle.

Remaining Tickets to Pacquiao vs. Bradley world championship event are priced at $1,204, $804, $604, $404, $254 and $154, not including applicable service fees. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000. Tickets are also be available for purchase at mgmgrand.com or ticketmaster.com.

For fight updates go to toprank.com, hbo.com/boxing or mgmgrand.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/trboxing,, facebook.com/trboxeo or facebook.com/hboboxing, and on Twitter at twitter.com/trboxing, twitter.com/trboxeo, or twitter.com/hboboxing. Use the Hashtags #PacBradley to join the conversation on Twitter.

GOBBLER’S KNOB, (Groundhog Day 2016) — At approximately 7:25 A.M. ET today, Punxsutawney Phil — the Seer of Seers, Prognosticator of Prognosticators — emerged from his burrow at Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, PA — wearing a Denver Broncos jersey embroidered with “Manningfest Destiny” — and proclaimed, in his native Groundhogese, that five-time world champion TIMOTHY “Desert Storm” BRADLEY would prevail in the rubber match of the world welterweight championship trilogy with Fighter of the Decade MANNY “Pacman” PACQUIAO on Saturday, April 9, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas., NV. Promoted by Top Rank®, in association with MP Promotions, the world welterweight championship three-match between pound-for-pound titans Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs), of General Santos City, Philippines, boxing’s only eight-division world champion, and Bradley (33-1-1, 13 KOs), of Palm Springs, Calif., who has held a world title every year since 2008, will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View®, beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT.

“I caucused long and hard over this. Because both fighters are equally great, I had to break the deadlock on predicting the winner by flipping a coin,” said the world’s No. 1 pound for pound quadruped as he shadowboxed during his annual news conference.. “Both fighters are going to go at each other with guns blazing. It’s going to be a firefight, and since Bradley and his trainer Teddy Atlas are firemen, you have to give them the nod. I also predict that Bradley will spring into an early lead for 2016 Fighter of the Year.”

When pressed for a definitive answer on whether Pacquiao had a chance to defeat Bradley, Phil astounded the media by answering in Tagalog and in English.

Quoth the groundhog, “Hinding-hindi na. Nevermore.”

*******************************

Remaining Tickets to Pacquiao vs. Bradley world championship event are priced at $1,204, $804, $604, $404, $254 and $154, not including applicable service fees. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000. Tickets are also be available for purchase at mgmgrand.com or ticketmaster.com.

For fight updates go to www.toprank.com, www.hbo.com/boxing or www.mgmgrand.com on Facebook at facebook.com/trboxing, facebook.com/trboxeo or facebook.com/hboboxing, and on Twitter at twitter.com/trboxing, twitter.com/trboxeo, or twitter.com/hboboxing. Use the Hashtag #PacBradley to join the conversation on Twitter.

LAS VEGAS, NV (January 28, 2016) — Before they enter the ring for their super brawls, MANNY “Pacman” PACQUIAO, TIMOTHY “Desert Storm” BRADLEY JR., TERENCE “Bud” CRAWFORD and FELIX “El Diamante” VERDEJO, who are headlining upcoming world championship events, took time out to make predictions on Super Bowl 50, which will pit the Denver Broncos against the Carolina Panthers on February 7. Also adding their two cents were trainers World-Famous FREDDIE ROACH and TEDDY ATLAS, who will be facing each other from opposing corners for the first time, with Pacquiao and Bradley, respectively, Top-10 contender “Hammerin'” HANK LUNDY and undefeated Brazilian buzz saw WILLIAM “Baby Face” SILVA, the respective opponents of Crawford and Verdejo.

THE PREDICTIONS

MANNY PACQUIAO
“Peyton Manning is a great competitor and with the possibility that this could be his last game I think he will be an inspiration to the Broncos to win and to end Peyton’s career as a world champion. He is certainly an inspiration to me.”

TIM BRADLEY
“It’s very clear to me — Carolina Panthers 31-27.”

FREDDIE ROACH
“I’m going with the Broncos because Peyton Manning, like Manny Pacquiao, has racked up all the records and the victories against superior opposition. Champions like Manning and Pacquiao know only one way to go out in their last rodeo and that’s on top. It’s Manningfest Destiny.”

TEDDY ATLAS
“It is Cam Newton’s time as I believe it is Tim Bradley’s and that is why Newton will win a Super Bowl and Bradley, a super championship, while Peyton Manning and Manny Pacquiao both retire after great careers.”

TERENCE CRAWFORD
“I don’t know what the score will be but the Carolina Panthers are the better team. One big reason is that they have Cam Newton as quarterback.”

HANK LUNDY
“I’m not really into it that much because I’ve got my own Super Bowl to worry about on February 27th and I’m coming to win the championship. I like Peyton Manning a lot, but I think Cam Newton is going to take care of business. Panthers 21-14.”

FELIX VERDEJO
“I’m going to pick the Carolina Panthers to win the Super Bowl this year. They are the better team”

WILLIAM SILVA
“I’m from Brasil so I do not get to see a lot of American football, but I think the Panthers will be the better team on Super Bowl day based upon their performances in past games. As far as the score, I think it will be the Panthers with three touchdowns to the Broncos’ one touchdown.”

********************

Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs), of General Santos City, Philippines, boxing’s only eight-division world champion and the reigning Fighter of the Decade, collides with five-time world champion Bradley (33-1-1, 13 KOs), of Palm Springs, Calif., in a 12-round world welterweight championship battle. Promoted by Top Rank®, in association with MP Promotions, Pacquiao vs. Bradley will take place Saturday, April, 9, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. It will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View®, beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT.

Crawford (27-0, 19 KOs), of Omaha, the 2014 Fighter of the Year and a two-division world champion, will be defending his World Boxing Organization (WBO) junior welterweight world title against Top-10 contender Lundy (26-5-1, 13 KOs), of Philadelphia, PA. Verdejo (19-0, 14 KOs), of San Juan, Puerto Rico, will be risking his WBO Latino lightweight title, Top-Five world ranking and his impending world title shot when he takes on Silva (23-0, 14 KOs), of São Paulo, Brasil, in a battle of undefeated contenders. Promoted by Top Rank, in association with Tecate, Classic Entertainment & Sports (CES), Diamante Promotions and Madison Square Garden, the Crawford/Verdejo championship doubleheader will take place on Saturday, February 27, at The Theater at Madison Square Garden. Both fights will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing® beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.

For fight updates go to toprank.com, hbo.com/boxing or mgmgrand.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/trboxing,, facebook.com/trboxeo or facebook.com/hboboxing, and on Twitter at twitter.com/trboxing, twitter.com/trboxeo, or twitter.com/hboboxing. Use the Hashtags #PacBradley, #CrawfordLundy or #VerdejoSilva to join the conversation on Twitter.

BOLTON (22 January) – Amir Khan would like to address the recent comments given by Manny Pacquiao as to why a fight between them never transpired.

Importantly, Amir would like to make clear that he holds Manny as a fighter in the highest regard but his comments about “middle men” preventing the fight from happening are wholly inaccurate and false.

Amir Khan said: “I have read recent comments by Manny Pacquiao stating that the reason a fight between us never happened was because of ‘middle men’ in my team – this is totally inaccurate and false.

“The only people negotiating on my behalf, as with all my fights, were my father Shah, uncle Taz and lawyer Robert Davis. They dealt directly with Manny Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum and adviser Michael Koncz.

“An initial meeting took place last September between Bob Arum and my uncle and lawyer in London. This was at the direct request of Bob Arum. The negotiations went well to the extent that a ‘Heads of Terms’ was signed and sent from my lawyer to Bob Arum.

“My team was told by Bob Arum that it was a choice between either Terence Crawford or myself and dates in April were being explored with the fight to take place in Las Vegas or Qatar.

“Since September of last year my team had been in direct contact with Pacquiao’s team, spoke with them and met them face-to-face, so to state that middle men prevented the fight from happening is not true at all.

“Rather, having seen comments from Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach saying that HBO were not interested in the fight – yet are seemingly happy to broadcast a third fight between Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley – makes clear the contradictions and the fact his team knew a fight between us would be a very dangerous one for him and best avoided.

“Freddie, who has trained us both, knows how our sparring sessions used to go and with me having filled out more now as a welterweight, getting bigger and stronger, makes a fight with Bradley – who Pacquiao in most opinions has beaten twice – a much easier option.

“I want to make the best fights for the fans and it was neither my team nor a lack of desire from my end which prevented a fight with Pacquiao from happening – that rests squarely on Team Pacquiao.”

By Norm Frauenheim-

There is no good way to say goodbye to boxing. Manny Pacquiao is trying to. At campaign stops in New York and Los Angeles this week, he said repeatedly that his fight with Timothy Bradley on April 9 would be his last.

In a political season full of Trump, Palin, Cruz and Hillary, however, few believe the soft-spoken Filipino Congressman, who also happens to be running for one of 24 seats in his country’s Senate. His promoter, Bob Arum, doesn’t. His trainer, Freddie Roach, doesn’t. His Filipino constituency doesn’t want

The prevailing skepticism is rooted in precedent. Boxers come back as often as politicians break promises. In Bill Dwyre’s ongoing series for Top Rank on the second Pacquiao-Bradley rematch, the retired Los Angeles Times sport editor quotes Arum on just the latest example.

Brandon Rios retired at a news conference in the immediate aftermath of his one-sided loss to Bradley last November. Arum immediately applauded his announcement.

“Half-an-hour later,’’ Arum said, Rios “unretired.’’

The entertaining anecdote is as true a guide as any on what to expect — or not expect — from Pacquiao or anybody else in a business where scar tissue is the only sure thing.

But it’s an awkward way to sell a fight.

The guess here is that Pacquiao believes what he is saying, just as surely as Rios did with a decision that sounded heartfelt at the time. But there are all kinds of reasons and scenarios that could change Pacquiao’s mind.

To wit:

§ If he wins, he has a title to defend and chance at more money to finance further campaigns.

§ If he loses, his reputation is at stake. Careers end in defeat all the time. But a loss might be tougher for a politician whose clout with the voters is built on how he won them over. His political career was launched by what he did within the ropes. A pound-for-pound ranking was the only poll he ever needed. The ring was his bully pulpit.

Either scenario comes with reasons to think his career continues beyond his third fight with Bradley at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand.

Meanwhile, Arum is confronted with the tough task of selling a bout that Pacquiao calls his farewell-fight, which is an oxymoron, if there ever was one. You fight to stick around. Throwing in the towel is one way of saying farewell.

A lot of fans feel as if they said farewell to Pacquiao, the fighter, on that December night in 2012 when he landed on the canvas, face-first, from a right hand delivered by Juan Manuel Marquez.

That might have been as good a time as any to say goodbye, except for that opportunity at a huge payday against Floyd Mayweather Jr. Good business sense dictated he continue, despite pressure to quit from family and friends.

Pacquiao stuck around, collecting what was reported to be between $160 and $180 million. It was worth it. It made him a very rich man. But it looks as if the May loss to Mayweather was just one more bout in the inevitable decline of a fighter in his mid-to-late 30s. He’s back now. He says he has recovered from surgery to the right-shoulder, which he said was injured in training, yet wasn’t disclosed until after the dull, controversial loss to Mayweather.

Then, there’s Mayweather, of course. He says he’s retired. But nobody believes him, either. The prevailing speculation since Mayweather’s promised career-ender –a September victory over Andre Berto — is that he’ll be back.

As different as they are, it turns out that Pacquiao and Mayweather have one thing in common. In a business with no term limits, it’s hard to say so long.

LAS VEGAS, NV (January 19, 2016) — Boxing’s only eight-division world champion and the reigning Fighter of the Decade, Congressman MANNY “Pacman” PACQUIAO, and five-time world champion TIMOTHY “Desert Storm” BRADLEY, will collide in a 12-round World Welterweight Championship battle of pound for pound titans, Saturday, April 9, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nev. This will also mark the first time former Trainers of the Year Freddie Roach and Teddy Atlas have faced each other from opposite corners. Promoted by Top Rank®, in association with MP Promotions, the Pacquiao vs. Bradley world championship event will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT.

Tickets to Pacquiao vs. Bradley, priced at $1,204, $804, $604, $404, $254,and $154, not including applicable service fees, go on sale This Friday! January 22, at 1:00 p.m. ET / 10:00 a.m. PT. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000. Tickets will also be available for purchase at mgmgrand.com or ticketmaster.com.

“I look forward to my battle with Timothy Bradley on April 9 and giving boxing fans a fight they will always remember,” said Pacquiao. “This fight has a very special meaning to me and I will pour every ounce of my being — physically, emotionally and spiritually — into preparing for Bradley. He has my full attention. I dedicate this fight to my fans and to my countrymen throughout the world who have kept me in their prayers. And as always, I fight to bring glory to the Philippines.”

“I’ve never needed to light a fire under Manny to get him ready for a fight. He’s a professional,” said Roach. “April 9 will be Manny’s finest hour.”

“I have always dedicated myself to who I am on fight night. However on April 9th I will not only have dedicated myself to that but also delivering the performance that everyone has long awaited,” said Bradley.

“The greatest responsibility we have is to care for our families. But our greatest privilege is to be given a challenge to achieve something special that our families can share and always remember. Fighting Pacquiao is exactly that challenge,” said Atlas.

“I am looking forward to this fight between Manny Pacquiao and Tim Bradley. We will see how much Manny has recovered from shoulder surgery and whether he has been able to retain all of his power. We saw in Tim’s last fight a new, improved Tim Bradley thanks and largely due to his astute trainer Teddy Atlas. One thing is for sure, this fight will be vastly different from the first two these two warriors have had,” said Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank.

“Manny Pacquiao has had an electrifying career and is destined to be enshrined in the Boxing Hall of Fame. Fight fans worldwide are attracted to his spirited fighting style and the grace and humility he displays outside the ring. He is one of the sport’s giants,” said Peter Nelson, Executive Vice President, HBO Sports. “Timothy Bradley Jr. has consistently beaten the odds and produced a brilliant career that has but a single blemish on it. Now on April 9, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Bradley gets to try and avenge the one loss on his record.”

Richard Sturm, president of Sports and Entertainment for MGM Resorts International, said, “We are thrilled to host the third fight in what has become a fantastic rivalry between two extremely talented fighters at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in April. There is no doubt both Pacquiao and Bradley will arrive to Las Vegas ready to face-off in an incredible showdown, providing boxing fans worldwide a conclusion to this storied trilogy.”

Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs), the lone congressional representative from the Sarangani province in the Philippines and an international icon, is the only fighter to win eight world titles in as many different weight divisions. A three-time Fighter of the Year and the Boxing Writers Association of America’s “Fighter of the Decade,” Pacquiao’s resumé features victories over present and future Hall of Famers, including Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton, Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales, Miguel Cotto, Shane Mosley, Juan Manuel Márquez and Bradley. From 2008 to 2010, five of his seven victories were world title victories in five different weight classes, from 130 to 154 pounds. No active boxer has sold more live tickets in the U.S. than Pacquiao, who is also credited with over 18 million domestic pay-per-view buys. He returns to the ring after a disappointing unanimous decision loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. The May 2 world championship fight generated a record 4.5 million pay-per-view buys and over $400 million in television revenue alone.

Bradley (33-1-1, 13 KOs), from Palm Springs, Calif., a two-division world champion who has held a world title every year since 2008, completed his comeback from his sole professional loss, to Pacquiao in their world title rematch, and a controversial draw against former interim world champion Diego Chaves — both in 2014 — when he beat undefeated world champion Jessie Vargas on June 27, to reclaim the WBO welterweight world title. Bradley put an exclamation point on his banner 2015 year in his title defense, under the guidance of new trainer Teddy Atlas, by knocking out former world champion Brandon Rios on November 7. It was the first time Rios had ever been stopped in his 11-year, 36-bout professional career, sending him into a temporary self-imposed retirement. A consensus Top-10 pound for pound fighter, Bradley returns to the ring a new fighter thanks to Atlas’ tutelage. A former junior welterweight world champion who unified the junior welterweight titles twice during his previous four-year world championship reign, Bradley moved up to the 147 pound division and beat Pacquiao on June 9, 2012 to capture the WBO welterweight crown for the first of three consecutive career-best victories. Bradley followed that by co-starring in the Fight of the Year on March 16, 2013, at StubHub Center, winning a brutal 12-round decision over future world champion Ruslan Provodnikov though Bradley was suffering from a concussion throughout most of the fight. Seven months later Bradley encored with another virtuoso performance in defeating three-division world champion and Mexican icon Juan Manuel Márquez on October 12, 2013, at The Forum, proving that Bradley is indeed one of boxing’s elite pound for pound fighters.

For fight updates go to toprank.com, hbo.com/boxing or mgmgrand.com on Facebook at facebook.com/trboxing,, facebook.com/trboxeo or facebook.com/hboboxing, and on Twitter at twitter.com/trboxing, twitter.com/trboxeo, or twitter.com/hboboxing. Use the Hashtag #PacBradley to join the conversation on Twitter.

About MGM Grand:

MGM Grand Hotel & Casino is “The Entertainment Authority,” creating the ultimate Las Vegas experience. A variety of accommodations serve every need while guests discover signature dining by celebrity chefs including Tom Colicchio’s Craftsteak, Michael Mina’s PUB 1842, Wolfgang Puck’s Bar & Grill and Michelin three star restaurant, Joël Robuchon. The resort offers a wide-range of world-class entertainment at the MGM Grand Garden Arena; the epic KÀ by Cirque du Soleil; world-famous dance crew Jabbawockeez; master illusionist David Copperfield; Brad Garrett’s Comedy Club; and Hakkasan Las Vegas in addition to a pampering spa and salon and an elaborate 380,000-square-foot conference center. MGM Grand is a wholly owned subsidiary of MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM). For more information and reservations, visit mgmgrand.com, call toll free at (877) 880-0880 or find us on Facebook and Twitter or follow our blog.

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, Jose Ramirez will take on Manuel Perez on the Manny Pacquiao – Timothy Bradley 3 card on April 9 in Las Vegas.

“Jose Ramirez is going into his first appearance on the big stage,” Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said. “He represents the future of boxing. He is the fan favorite in his hometown [near] Fresno, where he is widely known. We now believe he will become very popular among fans throughout the United States and the world.”

“I feel honored and thankful for the opportunity given to me, and I will do my best to give my greatest performance April 9,” Ramirez said.

“Jose is a champion inside and out of the ring, and there will be a ton of people from Fresno who will spend tens of thousands of dollars on tickets alone to see it in person, and many will watch at home as we have been flooded with ticket requests already.”

By Bart Barry-

Editor’s note: For part 1, please click here.

*

The May morning of 2015’s knockout of the year, the Saturday Mexican Saul “Canelo” Alvarez spearchiseled Texan James “Mandingo Warrior” Kirkland in Houston, no one was certain just yet how debasing for the sport of prizefighting 2015 would be, how mercenary, how joyless, but the previous weekend’s fare served notice to all aficionados, and the worst part, too: Mayweather-Pacquiao was what we asked for, demanded, allowed the sport to suspend itself in pursuit of, for five years that did nothing so much as hollow-out the fanbase by loitering in Las Vegas while more gymnasiums shuttered and fewer American boys explored boxing as more than a cynic’s plan-c moneymaking ruse, a trashtalking musicvideo to film after flunking football and basketball.

In March, Oscar De La Hoya promised Canelo Alvarez as a savior for the sport, and everyone applied the ironist’s filter, instantly and properly, hearing: Canelo Alvarez is the man the Golden Boy hopes will save his struggling brand. It was lost on no one how instrumental De La Hoya and “his” “promotional company” were to Money May’s ascent during the seven years De La Hoya vainly searched for someone, beginning with himself, to humble Floyd Mayweather; instrumental, in fact, is not strong enough – during the partnership years, Golden Boy Promotions was the fulcrum in Al Haymon’s lever, making De La Hoya and his former friend Richard Schaefer mechanically essential to a movement that, in 2015, changed its name from “HBO” or “Showtime” to Premier Boxing Champions, PBC, and began appearing on the same terrestrial television networks promoter Bob Arum convinced aficionados should be boxing’s rightful place (about a decade after Arum first moved boxing from terrestrial television, of course).

Very few pundits realized when Canelo fought Kirkland what an existential crisis the PBC presented, with its hostility to independent media and indifference to competitive matchmaking, and only marginally more recognize it today – choosing, symmetrically, to save such a collective revelation for the very moment their powerlessness to alter it achieves fullness and perfection (with writer David Avila a noble exception).

*

The May morning of 2015’s knockout of the year, the Saturday Mexican Saul “Canelo” Alvarez spearchiseled Texan James “Mandingo Warrior” Kirkland in Houston, brought merely one concern about a tardy arrival at the ballpark: There mightn’t be time for socializing and reminiscing with writers Kelsey McCarson, a fellow Texan, and David Greisman – not a fellow Texan but doing his level best that week to be one.

My fears were misplaced. The endless and uninspired undercard offered plenty of time for chatting and sharing a photo on the grass roamed by Astros outfielders. Seated directly in front of me, too, was Welshman Anson Wainwright, once a contributor to this very site and today a regular contributor to The Ring’s always engrossing “Best I Faced” series.

The ranks have thinned since my first visit to pressrow in 2004, and in the next five years the PBC’s subversion of media access will end either the PBC or pressrow, but wherever more than a halfdozen writers are gathered at a Texas fightcard, good health and good humor shall remain the rule.

*

The May morning of 2015’s knockout of the year, the Saturday Mexican Saul “Canelo” Alvarez spearchiseled Texan James “Mandingo Warrior” Kirkland in Houston, anyone who told you he was sure what to expect from Kirkland was embellishing the case a bit. Kirkland had done his preparations with San Antonio’s Rick Morones, instead of Austin’s Ann Wolfe, and while it likely made no difference to the outcome – Canelo is simply a higher level fighter than Kirkland, whatever Kirkland’s conditioning – it was not the plan in March when the Canelo-Kirkland presstour made its way to Alamo City’s historic Aztec Theatre and a pleasant and plump Kirkland confidently and ominously reported his manager was in negotiations with Ms. Wolfe.

Kirkland is a known entity in San Antonio, not quite a legend but one remembered in local gyms for having manstrength even as a boy. Kirkland was the right person to make Canelo look spectacular, a lie-detector type, rough and unrelenting, one to establish quickly the difference in caliber between a champion like Canelo and a local attraction.

Canelo had not before had a man of Kirkland’s class run across the ring at him on first bell and begin hurling punches without regard for anyone’s safety, but he managed the incident as if he had, and many times. That poise is a large reason Gennady Golovkin apologists, those who’ve amplified the Golovkin-camp line for three years, the risible assertion GGG, despite never fighting anywhere but middleweight, is ready to fight any man between 154 pounds and 168, strongly prefer 2016’s superfight happen at 160.

If that fight happens, this much will be made immediately clear: While Canelo Alvarez has fought at least one man considerably better than Golovkin, and maybe several, GGG’s reign of terror at middleweight has yet to include anyone close to Canelo’s talent.

*

The May morning of 2015’s knockout of the year, the Saturday Mexican Saul “Canelo” Alvarez spearchiseled Texan James “Mandingo Warrior” Kirkland in Houston, the 200-mile eastwards drive got justified by both men’s reputations and the increasingly unfortunate realization Canelo Alvarez will be the Mexican prizefighter most remembered in our current era – despite his technical inferiority to each member of our last era’s Mexican triumvirate: Juan Manuel Marquez, Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales.

Because of Mexican television rights and other complexities, including their standard-issue dark heads of hair, the best fighters of the last era accomplished fractionally much celebrity in their homeland as Canelo did before his 25th birthday. Canelo cannot be blamed for that. He’s squandered no opportunities, whatever his limitations of speed and power, and he remains a prompt and courteous interview even when he does not need to be. He has far surpassed his only realistic competition for Mexico’s heart, “Son of the Legend” Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., and he’s done it with discipline and class.

Any aficionado seated ringside for Canelo-Kirkland and knowledgeable of Mexican prizefighting history – practically a redundancy, that – left the experience balancing a sentiment like this: An era of Mexican prizefighting could do better than having Canelo Alvarez as its standard bearer, yes, but it could also do much worse.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

Manny Pacquiao will take on Timothy Bradley in a rubber match on April 9th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, according to Dan Rafael of espn.com.

“[Pacquiao adviser] Michael [Koncz] cleared everything with Manny and we sent out the advance money to seal the deal,” said Top Rank promoter Bob Arum.

“I already looked at it. I don’t believe in waiting,” said Bradley’s trainer Teddy Atlas. “When this fight was first discussed, I looked at it and I see what I should see and I see why Pacquiao was able to be effective and why Tim was able to be effective at the times when he was effective.”

Arum said he knew that many boxing fans would be a react negatively to the fight, but said, “This is a different Timothy Bradley under the aegis of Teddy Atlas,” Arum said. “This is not me just saying that. The Bradley that fought Rios, whatever you thought about Rios, was a different fighter. It’s still Bradley, but a new Bradley with Teddy. And at this point of his career, can Manny handle that? Remember, Manny is also coming off an injury.”

“Anyone who has watched me on ESPN for nearly 20 years knows I’m not one to throw out superlatives unless I believe them, but Pacquiao is one of the best fighters of the last decade,” Atlas said. “It’ll be a tough challenge, but we’ll make sure we’re ready for [it]. We will respect the challenge Pacquiao presents. We will do what we’re supposed to do and be 100 percent prepared. It will be a difficult fight.”

Arum is already licking his chops to promote the fight, in part, as a battle between Atlas and Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s Hall of Fame trainer and seven-time trainer of the year. Atlas and Roach don’t particularly care for each other, and Arum is banking on some trash talk between the cornermen to help sell the fight.

“If that’s what people are looking to see, they’ll see shadowboxing,” Atlas said. “They’ll see Freddie by himself. I have no interest in that. This is about Timmy and about winning the fight. That’s all it’s about for me. It’s about Timmy, not about me and Freddie.”

“I am not going to position this as his last fight,” Arum said. “It may very well be his last fight, but I won’t put myself in the position of selling it as his last fight and then he decides he wants to fight again and I look like a schmuck. I’m not sure it is his last fight, despite what he told me.”

“The reasoning was they didn’t think Khan would resonate on pay-per-view in the United States,” Arum said. “While people in the boxing community know him, he wasn’t well known by the public in the United States. In England, sure. There was no contest that he would be bigger business over there. But the bulk of the money is in the United States pay-per-view.

“And they felt that Crawford was a great fighter but that even though the boxing fans knew him, the public at large hadn’t heard of him. They thought Bradley, coming off the victory over Rios and the fact that he looked like a new fighter under Teddy Atlas, would do very well on pay-per-view.”

“At that point, we directed our efforts on making the match between Pacquiao and Bradley,” Arum said. “[Top Rank president] Todd [duBoef] worked with Monica Bradley [Timothy’s wife and manager] on the terms, and he’s satisfied. And the paperwork is being generated now.

“We also gave Pacquiao all the information we received from the TV companies and the MGM, and he made the choice.”

By Norm Frauenheim

Bankers, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Manny Pacquiao, a handful of promoters and network executives can celebrate a year about to enter the books. Money ruled, which means it was Mayweather’s year. He fulfilled his nickname. Got most of the money, too.

But good for the business?

No way.

By definition, prizefighting is a simple enough formula. To wit: Get the biggest prize for the smallest risk. In 2015, Mayweather played that one out better than anyone ever has. As the year ends, there continues to be unconfirmed reports that receipts for his revenue-record setting victory over Pacquiao on May 2 are still being counted. Numbers are all over the place.

We read that his final purse is $220 million, then $260 million, which would rank the money for his 12 rounds of work somewhere between the Los Angeles Dodgers ($291 million) and the New York Yankees ($223 million) at the top of baseball’s last list of reported payrolls.

Hard to know what to believe. But there he is, in Dubai one day, in a new Bugati the next and always ready to make it rain by stuffing his bags with disposable cash.

Mayweather has gone from the top of the pound-for-pound list to being the face of the one percent. Let somebody a lot smarter than a boxing writer be the judge of that. But give Mayweather credit, not that he needs it. He might not have been TBE in the ring. But he ranks as The Best Earner in history and that figures to be undisputed for a while.

In the wake of a winner-take-all model that enriched him, however, there are consequences that could confront the game with a steep price in 2016 and beyond. HBO’s Jim Lampley said it best in the wake of his dull decision over Pacquiao, whose role as the junior partner in the money grab earned him north of $150 million.

Lampley called it a cynical exercise.

It was. As the year ends, coffers are filled, yet there’s an empty feeling about what was really accomplished. Does anybody other than Mayweather think the game is better for the exercise? Didn’t think so.

A sign of that emptiness is in the year-end ritual of voting for the various awards. Fighter of the Year is the biggie. But it’s a tough choice this time. On this ballot, the dreaded No Award, always a contender in a lot of categories, is an option. Yeah, Tyson Fury beat Wladimir Klitschko, but I’d cast a vote for Donald Trump before I’d vote for an okay heavyweight who reserves most of the fury for his insults.

The guess here is that Nicaraguan flyweight Roman Gonzalez wins, but his likely election looks to be more of a concession to a brilliant career (44-0, 38 KOs) ignored until HBO finally decided to pair him up with middleweight Gennady Golovkin in a couple of telecasts

An astonishing and worrisome aspect to the Gonzalez phenomenon goes back to where this column starts. Follow the money. In 2015, Gonzalez became the lightest ever to ascend to No. 1 in The Ring’s pound-for-pound rankings. He succeeded Mayweather after Mayweather’s announced retirement following a victory in September over Andre Berto.

The dollars, however, didn’t follow Gonzalez’ climb up the pound-for-pound scale. During his reign at No. 1, Mayweather earned a minimum of $32-million a fight through his six-fight deal with Showtime. In Gonzalez’ October stoppage of Brian Viloria in his second HBO appearance and in the immediate aftermath of his introduction as the pound-for-pound No. 1, he earned a career-high $250,000. Mayweather stuffs more than that into one of those carry-ons.

For Gonzalez, the pound-for-pound title represents little more than an honorarium. The Grand Canyon-like disparity on the pay scale, however, includes a more troubling aspect. It represents a lack of investment in lighter weights that have often sustained the business during periods of transition and/or trouble. HBO’s interest in Gonzalez is promising. Perhaps, it’s the beginning of an investment.

But the long-term trend is not good. Consider this: In the two-plus decades since junior-flyweights Michael Carbajal and Humberto Gonzalez earned $1-million purses for fighting each other three times in 1993 and 1994, there’s been no raise in pay for the little guys, who in some ways are to boxing what the working middle class is to an economy. There are no good undercards without them. Yet, they’re getting paid a lot less now than they did a few generations ago.

In stature and impact, they are so small that they often don’t seem to matter. But it’s the little things that often reveal a lot about a business and these days they appear to be troublesome fly in a problematic ointment.

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, Manny Pacquiao WILL NOT announce his April 9 opponent as previously planned.

Arum spokesman Fred Sternburg told ESPN.com on Thursday night, “I was asked to tell you on Bob’s behalf that, unfortunately, Top Rank will not have an announcement on truTV as originally planned as Manny is not ready to make a decision on his opponent yet,” Sternburg said.