Pacquiao vs Bradley: Potential Undercard Fighters
by Waldo Rastel on Feb 7, 2012 1:06 AM EST
in Boxing Commentary & Opinion
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Before I start, let me just put out this disclaimer. Most of this article is pure speculation based on a promotional company and likely matchups for the fight on June 9th. In order to narrow down potential undercard opponents, I first thought of who are the big stars for Top Rank and if they will be ready to fight on June 9th.
Since Vanes Martirosyan has been very angry at our coverage of him, let's start with a good possible fight for him. A good step up fight for Vanes would be him against Delvin Rodriguez. Delvin has proven his willingness to fight in his war with Pavel Wolak and he is decent fighter. If Vanes has significantly improved over the past couple of years with Freddie Roach, then he should take this fight hopefully in an exciting fashion. This fight will also be a measuring stick for Martirosyan. Fail to get a victory and it will be a long road back to the top. Win and bigger name fights like Margarito are going to be in his future.
For some more fights I'm going to defer to Scott's judgment. One of his picks is Mike Alvarado who was on the Pacquiao vs Marquez undercard. His TKO victory over Breidis Prescott was the best fight on the undercard and arguably the best fight overall. He proved himself to be a fun fighter and I wouldn't mind giving him another look.
Scott's other pick was Mike Jones vs Randall Bailey. This fight is up for a purse bid but I doubt there will be much demand from the networks for this fight. HBO has already rejected a Bailey-Berto fight so I would doubt that a Jones-Bailey fight would get any kind of interest. Therefore, a PPV undercard would be the perfect place to put this fight. Bailey is an exciting but extremely limited fighter. He has game changing power in his right hand, but that's about it. Jab effectively while avoiding the right hand, and you will have a victory over Randall Bailey. However, if you slip up, it will be game over.
Other possibilities include a comeback fight for Kelly Pavlik and maybe a fight for Antonio Margarito if he is not going to be taking on Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. It seems like Juan Manuel Marquez will fight in Mexico in April, and will be targeting Lamont Peterson in July.
Since this is a brainstorming article, are they any possible matchups that you guys can think of?
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I guarantee you
There will be at least one decent Mexican fighter. Arum ALWAYS puts at least one on the card. Rios doesn’t really work here, and I’m not sure Margarito still draws, so I’m thinking Junior, even though he says he wants a step up. The other sad, sad possibility is Omar, who has yet to appear on a major card, and isn’t half of Junior, but he still has the name.
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by Brickhaus on Feb 7, 2012 1:44 AM EST via mobile reply actions
no way… Margarito will only be used for really big fish from now on. His value is in raising the profile of Top Rank future stars. Plus, I get a feeling he will only be accepting million dollar paydays from now on, which really might be two rich for such an undercard.
In fact, it’s pretty clear exactly what his next fight will be: June 16th against Julio Cesar Chavez Junior. That is not even up for discussion. It’s such an obvious fight from Top Rank’s point of view… And that is a main event fight, NOT an undercard fight.
Margarito
will be trying to put his shoes on backwards pretty soon
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