Manny Pacquiao vs. Terence Crawford Almost Happened But Bob Arum Prevented It
Manny Pacquiao is all set to face Timothy Bradley Jr. on April 9 in what the Filipino boxer/lawmaker says is the last one for his boxing career.
The eight-time division champion is heavily favoured to defeat "Desert Storm" despite the fact that they split their previous two meetings. Bradley took the first one in 2012 via a split decision while Pacquiao came back in 2014 to hack out a unanimous decision win. In the eyes of many, Pacquiao is 2-0 believing that he should have been crowed the winner of their first meeting.
With that in the air, that belief has cast some doubt on how Bradley will fare this April. Not even the change in trainer (Teddy Atlas) is seen to change the eventual scenario, though that remains to be seen.
Bradley was one of three names in the final list. The others were Amir Khan and Terence Crawford. Khan was booted out due to questions on his chin and punching power via SkySports, while Crawford allegedly lacked the pay-per-view draw to make the fight lucrative.
Of the two however, trainer Freddie Roach wanted Crawford but maintained that he doesn’t see him winning over his boy.
“Crawford is a very good fighter. I like him a lot and so forth. But I just don’t feel he has the experience to beat Pacquiao right now. And we did say yes to that fight also, and they told us it wasn’t available. So we went to Bradley,” said Roach.
Roach added that one reason for Crawford’s unavailability was that Top Rank promoter Bob Arum could have been protecting him. With Pacquiao vowing to end his career, Crawford could be the next fighter that Arum is grooming.
For his part, Crawford took the shunning in stride and life went on. In fact, the WBO super lightweight champion already has a match set for Feb. 27 at the Theater in Madison Square Garden in New York City against Hank Lundy.
Crawford is a heavy favorite to prevail over Lundy, though the 32-year-old boxer warns the champ not to be too complacent.
"I'm rambunctious! I'm amped up. I'm ready to go! It's 'Hammer Time'! He ain't never been hit till he been hit by 'The Hammer'!" said Lundy.
Assuming that Crawford does come out on top as expected, Arum is still entertaining thoughts of a big fight and it still involves Pacquiao in the mix. The only way that can happen is if Pacquiao wants to, but as things stand now, the Filipino is focused on his political career.
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