Manny Pacquiao to fight Timothy Bradley Jr. for third time

The next opponent of legendary Filipino southpaw Manny Pacquiao will be a familiar one: fellow welterweight Timothy Bradley Jr.

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, who represents both fighters, announced that a third installment of Pacquiao vs. Bradley is officially set for April 9th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, per Dan Rafael of ESPN. The bout will be a title fight for Bradley’s WBO welterweight belt.

This was expected to be the final career fight of the 36-year-old Pacquiao, who is likely to be elected to a six-year Senate seat in the Philippines come May, but Arum tossed a bit of cold water on that notion, declaring that he won’t promote it as such.

“I am not going to position this as his last fight,” said Arum. “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.”

Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) will be getting into the ring for the first time since his unanimous decision loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a mockery of a fight last May. It will be the completion of a trilogy with Bradley (36-1, 33 KOs), who defeated Pacquiao in a highly-controversial split decision in June 2012, before falling by unanimous decision in the rematch in April 2014. The fight had been rumored to be in the works for several weeks now.

While the eight-division world champion Pacquiao will always be a massive box office draw, one would think that he could have chosen a better opponent for what may be his final career bout. It’s already clear who the better fighter is in this “rivalry” with Bradley, and a matchup with a fresh face with something to prove (like Amir Khan or Terence Crawford, both of whom were originally considered for this fight) would have provided significantly greater entertainment value.

If Pacquiao does opt for retirement after this match, perhaps the definitive conclusion of his saga with Bradley (with the two fighters technically split at one win apiece for the moment) would prove poetic justice. But speaking in terms of quality of viewing, all I can say is “meh.”