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Pacquiao Headed to Vegas on Nov. 10, Bradley Says Manny Fears Rematch

Will Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley rematch in November? The ball is in Pacquiao's court, and Bradley thinks Manny might be scared. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
Will Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley rematch in November? The ball is in Pacquiao's court, and Bradley thinks Manny might be scared. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
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Top Rank has made plans to stage Manny Pacquiao's next fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on November 10, but the list of potential opponents remains the same, and we've seen it all before: Timothy Bradley, Juan Manuel Marquez, and Miguel Cotto are said to be the options, though with Cotto reportedly working with Golden Boy on a December 1 date, that seems pretty unlikely.

Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KO) is of course coming off of a highly-controversial loss to Bradley on June 9, which was preceded by Pacquiao's own controversial win against Marquez last November. Business-wise, the Marquez fight was a much bigger hit, drawing more at the gate and on pay-per-view, and Bob Arum has expressed at least some reluctance to run a Pacquiao-Bradley rematch because there is a question of whether or not it would be the best option right now.

But if Bradley is what Pacquiao decides he wants, I'm sure that's what he'll get. For his part, Bradley (29-0, 12 KO) says he's ready to go, and that he thinks Pacquiao's team fears hooking it up again. He also is getting tired of the waiting game.

"Are we going to get it on? If not, tell me now so I can move on," Bradley said. "I'm ready to move on. If we're not going to do it, say ‘Bradley it's not you. I don't want to fight you.'"

Bradley says he's fully healed from the injuries that did slow him down in the June bout, but hasn't resumed training. He also says he'd be willing to fight Floyd Mayweather or Miguel Cotto himself, but both of those don't seem very likely for now. Cotto, again, is working with Golden Boy at the moment, which means that Bradley, promoted by Top Rank, won't be getting a piece of that action. And we've yet to see if there's really any legitimate hope of Mayweather's new TMT Promotions company working with Arum and Top Rank.

All reports have been for the last however many weeks that Manny will soon make up his mind, and I'm sure he will in the next couple of weeks, since that would give them time for the press push before November 10.

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