By Keith Idec
Most boxing observers don’t believe Manny Pacquiao’s third fight against Timothy Bradley will be the last of the Filipino legend’s Hall-of-Fame career, despite Pacquiao’s proclamation.
Bradley (33-1-1, 13 KOs, 1 NC) isn’t at all concerned with whether Pacquiao will fight again after April 9. The former two-division champion expects to encounter the same motivated, powerful Pacquiao that night at MGM Grand in Las Vegas, no matter what Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) has said about retiring following their welterweight championship rubber match (HBO Pay-Per-View).
“To be honest with you, I don’t know,” Bradley said during a recent conference call regarding Pacquiao’s potential retirement. “And honestly, I don’t really care. If it is, so be it. If it isn’t, then hey, that’s more power to him. He can do what he wants to do.
“But I’m not really thinking about [his] last fight [being] this fight. It’s a fight April 9th. That’s all I know. It’s a fight April 9th that I wanna win, that my team wanna win, and I’m sure [trainer] Teddy [Atlas] wants to win this fight. And we just have to go out there and do our job.”
The 37-year-old Pacquiao contends that he’ll retire after facing Bradley a third time to concentrate on his political career. The two-term congressman is running for senator, a more time-consuming job than the provincial position he holds in the House of Representatives, in an election scheduled for May 9 in the Philippines.
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
