After all the bluster of the past week or so in which Manny Pacquiao claimed he would face Floyd Mayweather Jr. for free with all proceeds going to charity, the fight predictably vanished into thin air.
Last night it was announced that Pacquiao would not be stepping into the ring with the pound-for-pound king; instead he will be going for vengeance on April 12th against Timothy "Desert Storm" Bradley, who controversially defeated him in 2012 to the dismay of much of the boxing world.
While Bradley has gone on to defeat Ruslan Provodnikov in a thrilling slugfest, followed by a convincing win against Juan Manuel Marquez, he hasn't escaped the stigma of his disputed win against Pacman.
"It feels great to get this rematch," Bradley told The Desert Sun. "I'm happy to have this opportunity to get rid of this dark cloud that has been looming over me since 2012." He went on to express that this is an opportunity to "basically shut up the naysayers and everyone who felt I can't win or won't win this fight and that I didn't win the last fight."
Top Rank president Todd DuBoef chimed in that Bradley will bring his best to this bout. "It's a personal thing with Manny. He wants to get rid of what he considers an unneeded blemish on his record. And I think Timmy wants to say, 'Hey, it was no unneeded blemish. It was real and I'm going to prove it's real.' You have two guys who want to fight each other, and that's not always the case."
While he claims to believe fully that he did defeat Manny, this time around his experience coupled with Pacquiao's aging leads Bradley to believe he can win again, this time convincingly.
"Now I'm not the little dog on the block. I'm a top dog," Bradley said. "I'm a lot more mature as a fighter, as a man. I'm a little older, Pacquiao is a little older, so it's different. I've had some great wins in those two years and I feel I'm more than ready.
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