Top Rank has once again underwhelmed us with a lackluster undercard for the Manny Pacquiao v Tim Bradley PPV event scheduled for Saturday night. On a night when we are watching a rematch of a fight that wasn’t highly entertaining to start with, I really expected Bob Arum to stack the card with A list talent. Instead we are left with a “Friday Night Fights” type of lineup.
This is no slight to ESPN because I have seen some great fights on FNF but that platform is for contenders on the way up or a name fighter trying to re-establish their career. Ray Beltran v Arash Usmanee is a fight I would expect to see opening up for a Boxing After Dark card.
Khabib Allakhverdiev v Jessie Vargas isn’t going to make anyone buy this event. You don’t have to have the biggest names to have the best fights but if you are asking me to spend hard earned $75 the least you could do is give me some name brand fighters.
Mayweather is by far the biggest name in boxing and he still gives the fans a night top notch boxers going at it. The under card for Floyd Maywwather Jr v Marcos Maidana is loaded with so many good fights that the undercard that it would be considered a good night of fights without the main event. Showtime is giving us Amir Khan vs Luis Callazo, Adrien Broner v Carlos Molina and Love v Periban.
Bob Arum has flat out dropped the ball on this event and he wonders why MGM has Mayweather all over the venue. While I am eager to see if Manny can regain his title and wondering if Bradley’s new found swagger will be enough to beat Manny again, this is a fight that exactly nobody was dying to see again.
Most folks thought Manny won easily, myself included, and regardless of who won there wasn’t one exchange during the fight that made anybody jump out of their seats. Hell, even Bob Arum didn’t want to see it again and now a year and a half later he wants us all to pay for it again. At some point I would like to get a little bang for my buck and not feel like a sucker for spending it watching fighters I wouldn’t watch for free.
