Pacquiao – Bradley III is on for April 9

Manny Pacquiao will take on Timothy Bradley in a rubber match on April 9th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, according to Dan Rafael of espn.com.

“[Pacquiao adviser] Michael [Koncz] cleared everything with Manny and we sent out the advance money to seal the deal,” said Top Rank promoter Bob Arum.

“I already looked at it. I don’t believe in waiting,” said Bradley’s trainer Teddy Atlas. “When this fight was first discussed, I looked at it and I see what I should see and I see why Pacquiao was able to be effective and why Tim was able to be effective at the times when he was effective.”

Arum said he knew that many boxing fans would be a react negatively to the fight, but said, “This is a different Timothy Bradley under the aegis of Teddy Atlas,” Arum said. “This is not me just saying that. The Bradley that fought Rios, whatever you thought about Rios, was a different fighter. It’s still Bradley, but a new Bradley with Teddy. And at this point of his career, can Manny handle that? Remember, Manny is also coming off an injury.”

“Anyone who has watched me on ESPN for nearly 20 years knows I’m not one to throw out superlatives unless I believe them, but Pacquiao is one of the best fighters of the last decade,” Atlas said. “It’ll be a tough challenge, but we’ll make sure we’re ready for [it]. We will respect the challenge Pacquiao presents. We will do what we’re supposed to do and be 100 percent prepared. It will be a difficult fight.”

Arum is already licking his chops to promote the fight, in part, as a battle between Atlas and Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s Hall of Fame trainer and seven-time trainer of the year. Atlas and Roach don’t particularly care for each other, and Arum is banking on some trash talk between the cornermen to help sell the fight.

“If that’s what people are looking to see, they’ll see shadowboxing,” Atlas said. “They’ll see Freddie by himself. I have no interest in that. This is about Timmy and about winning the fight. That’s all it’s about for me. It’s about Timmy, not about me and Freddie.”

“I am not going to position this as his last fight,” Arum said. “It may very well be his last fight, but I won’t put myself in the position of selling it as his last fight and then he decides he wants to fight again and I look like a schmuck. I’m not sure it is his last fight, despite what he told me.”

“The reasoning was they didn’t think Khan would resonate on pay-per-view in the United States,” Arum said. “While people in the boxing community know him, he wasn’t well known by the public in the United States. In England, sure. There was no contest that he would be bigger business over there. But the bulk of the money is in the United States pay-per-view.

“And they felt that Crawford was a great fighter but that even though the boxing fans knew him, the public at large hadn’t heard of him. They thought Bradley, coming off the victory over Rios and the fact that he looked like a new fighter under Teddy Atlas, would do very well on pay-per-view.”

“At that point, we directed our efforts on making the match between Pacquiao and Bradley,” Arum said. “[Top Rank president] Todd [duBoef] worked with Monica Bradley [Timothy’s wife and manager] on the terms, and he’s satisfied. And the paperwork is being generated now.

“We also gave Pacquiao all the information we received from the TV companies and the MGM, and he made the choice.”