By Mark Vester
If Paul Williams and Tim Bradley have their hearts set on a possible November fight with WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao, they will have to look elsewhere. Top Rank CEO Bob Arum says Williams and Bradley are not being considered as possible opponents to face Pacquiao on November 13.
Arum has been trying to make a fight between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. The veteran promoter had given Mayweather a July 16 deadline to accept the fight with Pacquiao. The deadline passed without a response, and now Arum will begin to negotiate with the other two candidates, which are Antonio Margarito and Miguel Cotto.
Arum regards Williams and Bradley as great fighters, but they don't bring enough money to the table to make a Pacquiao fight workable.
"Tim Bradley is a tremendous fighter and a great young man. The problem with Tim Bradley is, while me and you know that he is a superb fighter, the public doesn't know. So while these promoters are shouting out names, of very good fighters, [but] I consider them to be free-riders," Arum said.
"We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars building up our fighters, publicizing them, so that they are pay-per-view attractions. [And] losing money on a lot of events but we make them pay-per-view attractions. These other promoters, they don't really promote their fighters. They take money from HBO or Showtime. They take money from a little Indian casino and they think they are doing the kid a big service. I'm not going to let them free-ride on the work that we've done."
"Paul Williams is a tremendous fighter. He's really a great fighter. He doesn't have any following. He can't sell any tickets. Nobody is financing the pay-per-view just like they finance an HBO fight. HBO pays the money. With a pay-per-view fight, I'm the one who is financing it and I'm not going to let anybody free-ride."
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