The weights are in from Las Vegas for Saturday's welterweight world title fight between pound-for-pound contender Manny Pacquiao and unbeaten American Timothy Bradley. Pacquaio weighed in right at the welterweight limit of 147, while Bradley tipped the scales at 146.
Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 Kos) looks to win his 16th straight bout and successfully defend his WBO welterweight belt against Bradley (28-0, 12KOs) who is moving up to the 147-pound limit after winning the WBO and WBC belts and fighting his last two bouts at 140 pounds. Pacquiao, the only boxer ever to win world titles in eight different weight classes, is coming off a questionable, hard-fought decision victory over Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez back in November. It was Pacquaio's third fight against Marquez, who has continuously proved to be the Filipino's toughest adversary in recent times. Although many thought Marquez did enough to eke out a win, Pacquiao was given then win on points.
On the undercard of Pacquiao's pay-per-view win against Marquez in November, Bradley defeated Joel Casamayor by eighth round TKO in his last fight. Prior to that, Bradley won an ugly technical decision against Devon Alexander back in January of 2011, a fight that was highly anticipated but was largely disappointing. Multiple head butts, a point of emphasis heading into and Bradley fight and especially Saturday's tussle with Pacquiao, opened up a nasty cut on the brow of Alexander, which halted the fight in the tenth round.
We'll have full round-by-round coverage of tomorrow's show, including recaps of each undercard bout, so be sure to check back often.