There is a chance the rubber-match between welterweights Manny Pacquiao and Tim Bradley will not go ahead as scheduled on April 9th in Las Vegas. The reason is, today (local time) the Philippine elections committee was asked by Pac-Man’s senate candidate rival Walden Bello to stop the fight as it would give Pacquiao unfair publicity and exposure ahead of the May 9 elections.
Bello insists a law, put in place to give candidates equal publicity when entering an election, will be broken if Pacquiao’s fight, and all its TV, radio and print exposure, goes ahead. Bello, ESPN.com reports, wants the fight postponed until after May 9th.
“I imagine if they rule in our favour, which I believe they will, then they will have to tell Manny that he would have to comply with it,” Bello said when speaking on his request to the elections committee. “He has all the rights to exercise his boxing profession after the elections, but to schedule his boxing bout during the campaign period and close to the elections is obviously taking advantage of his personality and his profession, extending undue benefit to his candidacy.”
This is a serious matter and the fight may well have to be postponed. Pac-Man – who has been involved in a hailstorm of controversy this past week, with his well documented statement that people in same-sex marriage are “worse than animals” and his subsequent fall out with sponsors Nike – is simply too busy juggling both his boxing and his political careers, so his critics have maintained. The third Bradley fight is said to be Pacquiao’s final fight, but it might have to wait a month or so.
Seeing a big fight postponed is of course nothing new, with many a fight being called off due to injury, illness or even one fighter failing to make weight. But never has a fight been postponed due to political reasons. How this news will affect Tim Bradley, interfering with his intense training schedule, is not clear. But this news is not good news for either fighter or their millions of fans.
