By Rob Smith: WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley says he won’t be surprised if Manny Pacquiao chooses not to fight him in a rematch in his next fight on November 10th, as Bradley feels that he’s personally too dangerous for the Filipino to risk fighting again after having suffered a huge upset loss last June in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Speaking to RingTV.com, Bradley said “I’m not sure if [Pacquiao] wants to fight me anymore or not…I’m too high risk for these dudes…I don’t need to chase anyone. I’m the champ. So everybody wants my spot.”
One gets the feeling that Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum might not want his number #1 money fighter Pacquiao to fight Bradley right about now, because their fight didn’t bring in the big money in pay per view compared to some of Pacquiao’s other recent fight. Arum wants to match Pacquiao against proven money makers like Miguel Cotto or Juan Manuel Marquez. Bradley is a high risk fight but for different reasons. The risk is that a second fight between Pacquiao and Bradley might bring in even smaller numbers than the first, and Arum wants to bring in top dollar for his number attraction Pacquiao.
There’s no telling how much time that Pacquiao has left in the sport. His last two performances against Juan Manuel Marquez and Bradley has been less than overwhelming. It could be that their styles didn’t mix well with his own or it could be that Pacquiao is getting old now at 33. In that case, Arum really needs to make sure that he matches Pacquiao up against only big named opponents from now on until he retires. The problem is that there is only a tiny handful of fighters that bring in good money, and Arum can’t keep matching Pacquiao against the same guys over and over again without the public losing interest at some point.