Amir Khan and Timothy Bradley were supposed to fight this summer. Bradley, who isn’t a big draw or a big puncher, was going to make at minimum $1.3 million for the fight. Khan wanted the fight to happen so badly he offered Bradley part of his international money.
Bradley’s promoters and most people in boxing were amazed that Bradley actually turned down the deal, especially considering he was the one that called out Amir Khan.
I was also curious, but then I got a call from a friend of mine in Vegas. He told me that the only reason that Bradley turned down the deal is that he had a wink wink deal to move to Top Rank with the promise of a Manny Pacquiao fight.
That was months ago and I didn’t think much of it until last week when it was announced that Bradley had indeed signed with Top Rank and immediately was put on the Pacquiao vs. Marquez undercard.
Top Rank, before the ink was dry on the contract started, to point out that Bradley would be Pacquiao’s next opponent in 2012. Top Rank likes to pair Manny only with Top Rank guys so they can keep all the money in house.
As far as Floyd Mayweather, you need to understand one thing, he is going to take the highest money fight at the lowest risk. If he was to fight Pacquiao, sure he could make around $60 million, but it would come with extreme risk. He can fight Amir Khan and with the international money he could make $50-60 million with considerably less risk.
Khan has been pushing for the fight because he knows that he will get an opportunity to be the man to beat Mayweather and he will make a ton of money himself.
Khan is a good boxer, but he will be moving up in weight to fight Mayweather and while Khan has good power he doesn’t have explosive knockout power like Pacquiao or even Victor Ortiz.
Mayweather vs. Pacquiao is what the fans want, but I am not sure it is what the fighters and promoters want. Mainly because they want to milk as many paydays out of this before taking any great risk.
Mayweather can beat Pacquiao and Pacquiao can beat Mayweather, neither outcome would surprise me, but do either want to take that chance while cashing 30, 40 or 50 million paychecks against lesser opponents?
It’s strictly business.