Bradley bout not Pacman’s last match
Manny Pacquiao will not try to sell his coming fight against Timothy Bradley by saying it will be his last.
“No, no this won’t be my last fight,” the 33-year-old Filipino superstar yesterday told mediamen during the second and last leg of his press tour for his June 9 bout.
“I would like to fight two, three more times,” added Pacquiao, who will stake his WBO welterweight title against the undefeated Bradley at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
On both stops of the press tour, one in Beverly Hills, Pacquiao faced more questions related to Floyd Mayweather Jr. and the prospects of retiring after this one.
Pacquiao, now a congressman in his home province of Sarangani, will run for governor in General Santos City in 2013, and may end up shooting for the vice presidency.
His growing political career, plus the possibility that the superfight against Mayweather may never happen at all, has fueled talks that he might retire soon.
The latest to push for Pacquiao’s retirement is his 11-year-old son and namesake, Emmanuel.
“Daddy I want you to retire, but before you retire I have one request, before you retire, you fight Mayweather and beat him. Even my kids want me to fight Mayweather.
“I want that fight to happen. My kid is 11 years old but he wants me to fight Mayweather before I retire. I’m hoping for a November fight,” Pacquiao told www.ringtv.com <http://www. ringtv.com/> .
The fight against Mayweather came close to happening twice over the last couple of years. But it seems a lot of people have grown tired of waiting for it to happen.
Bob Arum, the chief of Top Rank Promotions, said the fight that could generate over $200 million in revenue is not bound to happen soon because of Mayweather.
“If I said there is hope, I’d be lying. Whenever we come close, he throws a curveball. Right now, at this point in time, the fight is impossible,” quoted him as saying. But Pacquiao is still hoping it would happen. “As long as I’m still in boxing, there is still hope that the Mayweather fight will happen,” he said at New York’s Chelsea Piers, the last stop of the press tour.
But there’s a fight against Bradley coming up, and until it’s done and over with, Pacquiao wants the name of Mayweather dropped.
“I’ve heard it a million times and I’m tired of answering that question over and over,” he said.