The 35 year-old, who has been linked to fights with Bradley and Wild Card training partner Ruslan Provodnikov, was defeated in an astonishing split decision at the MGM Grand Garden in June 2012 and despite initially turning down a return, Pacquiao is now ready for revenge.
“I really wanted to fight Bradley again in a rematch because I like to get back at him and at the same time, he’s holding my belt,” Pacquiao told The Manila Times.
“So far, my promoter Bob Arum and I will still talk about it and nothing is final yet. I guess next week, we will make a decision. But if you will ask me, I like to fight Bradley again.”
Pacquiao has never been one for making too much fuss about a decision not going his way, even though the boxing media went into overdrive in the aftermath and the Congressman may not see too many things that need changing from the first contest in order to triumph in any return.
“We will study everything first before making a game plan particularly what went wrong in our first fight, but the people knew who really won that fight,” said Pacquiao. “Anyway, let’s wait first for the formal announcement.”
By putting Bradley’s name forward on Thursday, Pacquiao played down a fight with Provodnikov who is also trained by Freddie Roach, although the ‘Pacman’ did not entirely rule out a future clash with the Russian.
“It will be detrimental to his (Provodnikov’s) career because he is a young fighter who has a lot of potential to be a (great) world champion,” said Pacquiao. “He is a good friend of mine and a spar mate,” he added.
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