Boxing News: Manny Pacquiao eager to begin training camp for Bradley bout

Manny Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz revealed that the former eight-division titlist plans to start his training camp early for his rubber match against Timothy Bradley on Apr. 9.

Koncz believes Pacquiao still has fire burning inside of him when the Filipino boxing icon talked about not waiting the usual eight weeks to prepare for his trilogy fight against Bradley. Koncz, who will join Pacquiao in a promotional tour in the US this week, said the boxer-turned politician will start training as soon as the tour ends.

“He told me that when he gets back from the press tour, he will begin training and I think that he will be going to the gym before the end of this month,” Koncz said, reports the Manila Bulletin.

Pacquiao will attempt to sell his third fight against Bradley as part of his whirlwind tour in the United States. According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Pacquiao will head to The Beverly Hills Hotel on Sunset Boulevard for a scheduled press conference on Wednesday and will be joined by Bradley, Freddie Roach, and Teddy Atlas.

Team Pacquiao and Team Bradley will then fly to New York on Jan. 20, where a second press conference awaits both fighters. Top Rank Promotions CEO Bob Arum is also expected to preside the events as the American businessman tries to match the gate receipts and pay-per-view sales of Pacquiao’s previous bouts, which, according to the report, means a sellout crowd and at least 850,000 PPV buys.

This could be the reason why Arum is trying to pencil a Pacquiao-Bradley III undercard full of prospects. According to Scott Christ of SB Nation’s Bad Left Hook, featherweight Oscar Valdez, and junior welterweight Jose Ramirez, along with Lithuanian welterweight Egidijus Kavaliauskas, and heavyweight Oleksandr Gvozdyk of Ukraine are considered undercards for the bout.

“With Top Rank promoter Bob Arum admitting admitting that Pacquiao-Bradley III isn’t going to be an easy sell on pay-per-view or at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, one could have reasonably speculated that he'd look to make a more star-studded pay-per-view undercard,” Christ wrote.

Pacquiao has not been in action for eight months after suffering a torn rotator cuff against Floyd Mayweather Jr in May. Although Pacquiao admitted he has been doing physical activities lately, an early training camp seems a viable option for himself, considering the amount of time he took for the recovery of his shoulder injury.