By Keith Idec
Adrien Broner blasted Bob Arum on Wednesday for matching Manny Pacquiao against Timothy Bradley a third time.
Broner lobbied hard to land an April 9 fight against Pacquiao, but Arum made Pacquiao-Bradley III, a seemingly pointless pay-per-view event that has been bombarded with immense criticism from boxing fans and media. Arum’s Top Rank Inc. promotes Pacquiao and Bradley. Broner is advised by Al Haymon, with whom Arum hasn’t done business unless it was too lucrative to dismiss (Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr.) or mandated by a sanctioning organization (Vasyl Lomachenko-Gary Russell Jr.)
When word spread that an agreement had been reached for Pacquiao-Bradley III, Broner tweeted: people wanted to see me fight @MannyPacquiaoTR but Bob Arum so greedy he wanted all the money in the house so he can Robb everybody LOL
Broner later tweeted: Haaaaaaa!!!!! They tricked y’all again faking like they wanted smoke with me knowing they got bag [bad] lungs and I was go f*ck @MannyPacquiaoTR up!!! #AboutBillions
Arum told Yahoo! Sports on Wednesday that Broner wasn’t worthy of a fight against Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs).
“Let’s be honest when we talk about Mayweather and [Andre] Berto,” Arum said. “What the [expletive] business did Berto have in the ring against Mayweather? None. It’s the same as if we had put Pacquiao in the ring with Broner. What the [expletive]? We’d never do that. It makes no sense.”
Broner (31-2, 23 KOs), the WBA world super lightweight champion, also indicated that he’ll now go through with a fight against Mayweather-promoted Ashley Theophane (39-6-1, 11 KOs).
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.