Superstar Manny Pacquiao and undefeated WBO World Welterweight champion Timothy Bradley pose with trainers Freddie Roach and Joel Diaz, the Top Rank Knockouts and the Tecete Girls during the final press conference at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Wednesday for their eagerly-anticipated rematch, Saturday, April 12 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. It will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View® beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT.
Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley Jr.are both making $6 million apiece, according the contracts filed with the Nevada State Athletic Commission. However, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum told ESPN.com on Wednesday that Pacquiao is guaranteed a minimum of $20 million. Both boxers, according to Arum, will earn a percentage of the pay-per-view sales.
During the press conference Bob Arum was pissed off because the MGM Grand had bunch of posters promoting the Mayweather-Maidana fight taking place next month in the same venue as Pacquiao-Bradley 2. Arum pulled no punches, introducing Richard Sturm, President of MGM Grand Entertainment and Sports, as “the president of hanging posters and decorations for the wrong fight.”
Bob Arum then commented, “In the Venetian (in China) they wouldn’t make a mistake like this. They knew what fight was scheduled in three or four days and they wouldn’t have a 12:1 fight all over the building that’s going to take place three weeks from next Saturday. But, that’s why one company makes a billion dollars a quarter and the other hustles to pay its debt. There it is. Say it like it is.”
[Arum on the Pacquiao-Bradley undercard] “They’re three really good fights, maybe not the biggest names in the world, but all fights that are even money or 2:1, unlike 15:1 fights with a big guy who ought to be locked up for the way he tweets (Adrien Broner). But again you pay your money you take your choice. Also, none of the fighters on the card had to pay anybody off to get on the card unlike how some other people operate on some other networks. That was an old tactic Frankie Carbo used, but it doesn’t go with HBO or Top Rank.”
[Arum on the competitiveness of Pacquiao-Bradley] “The only way you know that a match is competitive is to go outside and see what they’re doing in the race & sportsbook. If used to be when Bob Halloran was here, we used to have somebody from the host hotel’s race & sportsbook talk about the odds. But if you do a series of 10:1, 12:1 kind of fights, who wants to being in anyone from the race & sportsbook? So instead of having anyone from the race & sportsbook, I’ll take that role. In this fight, the line is under 2:1 with Manny the favorite. It’s a competitive match. No argument about it, as is what we’re gonna do in Madison Square Garden on June 7. Miguel Cotto and Sergio Martinez, also the odds under 2:1, a competitive match. And then in the new Forum in Los Angeles, Juan Manuel Marquez against Mike Alvarado, also a competitive match of around 2:1. So don’t listen to what myself, or any promoters say are competitive matches. Look and see what the odds are in the race & sportsbook.”
Arum then stated “if whatever I said was incendiary, I’m an old guy and I apologize.”
Photos by Chris Farina