In Manny Pacquiao's potential swan song come April, he will face a familiar foe as the third installment of his rivalry with current welterweight champion Timothy Bradley Jr. is set to take place.
Since Pacquiao announced last year that he will be retiring after one last fight this 2016, the boxing world waited for the announcement on who his opponent will be.
Names of contenders like Amir Khan, Kell Brook, and Terence Crawford started to pop up in the list of possible foes for the former eight-division champion's final fight.
But as 2015 was about to close, Bradley slowly became a frontrunner and with a dominating technical knockout (TKO) victory over Brandon Rios last November increased his chances of being selected.
That happened last Wednesday when Top Rank CEO Bob Arum announced that a rubber match between Pacquiao and Bradley is set to take place on April 9 at the MGM Grand.
However, the announcement received negative comments because of the first two fights between the two in which Pacquiao dominated, although losing the first fight because of a controversial split decision.
Despite this, Arum believes that the third meeting between the two will be much better since Bradley is now under renowned trainer Teddy Atlas.
"This is not me just saying that. The Bradley that fought Rios, whatever you thought about Rios, was a different fighter. It's still Bradley, but a new Bradley with Teddy," Arum said, according to ESPN.
"And at this point of his career, can Manny handle that? Remember, Manny is also coming off an injury," the 84-year-old promoter added.
The injury Arum is talking about was the shoulder woe Pacquiao had during his last fight back in May in which he lost to rival Floyd Mayweather Jr. via unanimous decision.
According to Pacquiao's camp, the injury hindered his movement, making him not a hundred percent healthy versus Mayweather.
