Manny Pacquiao has yet to name his final opponent, something which should have taken place last week.
Pacquiao and company have decided to delay announcing his next opponent for early 2016 but it seems fans will not be as excited anymore after two of the three names mentioned as his last opponents have been practically crossed out.
The initial list had Amir Khan, Terence Crawford and Timothy Bradley Jr. as the shortlisted candidate names for his farewell fight which will happen on April 9, 2016.
Of that list, Khan was the first one to bow out. Khan’s camp decided to head in a different direction with strong belief that the British southpaw will be shunned anyway. Right now, Khan and manager Eddie Hearn have diverted their attention to Kell Brook in a similar blockbuster fight that could happen at the Wembley Stadium in June, 2016 via the Guardian.
Just recently, another name could be scratched out as well.
Terence Crawford may not be available for the said date with reports that Crawford will be defending his title in late February at the Madison Square Garden in New York per Mike Coppinger of USA Today.
Crawford was one of the heavy favourites to gain the nod, someone new and promising that could give the Filipino boxer a hard time. But with his title defense pretty close to April 9, it seems that he will eventually back out of it was well.
As initially mentioned by the Mirror, it looks like Timothy Bradley Jr. will be the final opponent of the eight-time division champion.
It will be their third face-off as they try to break out of their deadlock.
Bradley won the first encounter in 2012 via controversial split-decision while Pacquiao took the second one with an impressive unanimous decision. If the two scenarios are to be a basis, Pacquiao is an overwhelming favorite.
There will be however something different in case it will be a Pacquiao vs. Bradley tiff. One is that Bradley is handled by someone new, Teddy Atlas.
The changes were apparently evident when Bradley knocked out Brandon Rios recently and such made “Desert Storm” an interesting opponent to consider.
Even that may not be a certainty though with Bradley hinting that a tiff with Miguel Cotto fancies him even more per a report from Boxingscene.com. If that prospers, Pacquiao could find himself without a dance partner for April.
From the looks of it, his hold up is doing more harm than good with his choices seemingly getting impatient and obviously unwilling to wait.
Hopefully by the time he announces his chosen one, it will still be among the shortlisted candidates.
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