TIMOTHY Bradley, the awful underdog, gets (only) a $4-million pay check for his third encounter against Manny Pacquiao.
The pesky former world welterweight titlist called the Desert Storm was paid $5 million and $6 million, respectively for his two previous fights against Pacquiao who, by the way, will get at least $20 million for the April 9 event in Las Vegas.
Did Pacquiao get the big purse after he assured Top Rank Inc. he would deliver a knockout?
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A silly thought but, mind you, questions were also being raised on Pacquiao’s ability to stop Bradley—whom he had failed to pin down previously—this late in his career.
The odder thing here is that trainer Freddie Roach, while readily noting Pacquiao had scored his last knockout in 2009 yet, has been crying like a great tenor about an impending KO win for his prized puncher, who’s at same time gunning for a Senate seat in the coming Philippine national elections.
Based on latest camp feeds, Pacquiao, who was supposed to have (already) peaked earlier in the week, has been pounding frantically on the bag and hitting the road early as though still cramming for form.
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Reports the veteran boxing scribe Nick Giongco from the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood: “Every punch on the heavy bag produced a whacking sound, eerily similar to gunfire, and sounded so amusing that people applauded.”
Nobody could be more pleased than Roach himself, the report said.
Meanwhile, Bradley would confirm he has started to cut down on road work much earlier, while also slowing down in gym exercises, having hit peak form already.
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Another report from inside Team Pacquiao said the Filipino boxing superhero has been advised to slow down.
Pacquiao, pushing much harder, would, however, said he would just like to make sure he would be able to deliver a sizzling performance.
Needless to say, Pacquiao is desperately seeking to score a knockout after an 11-month layoff caused by his comprehensive loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr.
There’s also a growing belief, caused by Bradley’s visible improvement, that the April 9 bout would most likely again go the distance.