According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, Timothy Bradley will defend the WBO Welterweight championship against Juan Manuel Marquez tentatively set for September 14th in Las Vegas.
The bout will pit the latest two men to hand Manny Pacquiao a loss.
“If Mayweather is going to fight on Sept. 14, we’ll move our date,” Arum said. “But this prevents anybody from bait-and-switching us. We talked to the [pay-per-view] industry about it. Nobody is looking to make trouble. We’re just looking to protect our position.
“Marquez and Bradley is a huge fight, especially with Hispanics, so we’d like to do it on Sept. 14. Nobody can say we’re jumping Golden Boy’s date. We have a date in reserve in case Mayweather fights on Sept. 14, which I don’t believe he will wind up doing. If he doesn’t, we will go on Sept. 14. If [Golden Boy chief executive Richard] Schaefer is going to bait and switch and try to put in some other fight on Sept. 14, he won’t get away with it. But if Mayweather fights then, fine. We’ll move.”
“The fight is agreed to. We have contracts out to both fighters,” Arum said. “[Top Rank president] Todd [duBoef] worked hard with both sides and [Marquez co-promoter] Fernando [Beltran] worked hard with Marquez and we came to terms with both of them.”
Promoter Bob Arum said he would move the date to October if Floyd Mayweather decides to fight on the the Mexican Independence Day date.
“It would be a very significant thing for Marquez to win another title,” Arum said.
“These guys wanted to fight each other, too. They really wanted to fight each other, even though either of them could have opted to fight Manny. But Bradley-Marquez is an interesting fight. People are going to see an action fight. Marquez is an action fighter, and Bradley showed he’s not afraid of slugging with anyone like he did [last month] in the fight with [Ruslan Provodnikov].”
Bradley, however, reached a “deal in principle” Monday night, manager Cameron Dunkin told ESPN.com.
“We do have a contract but [Bradley and his wife, Monica] want to make some changes, but none of the changes are financial that I know of. It’s been agreed to in principle,” Dunkin said.
“It’s a terrific fight and an action fight. I like my guy to win, of course, but I think it’s gonna be a really, really fun fight that people will enjoy. You’ve got two of the best boxers in the world. These are guys that know how to fight and who are not afraid to bang and who are tremendously skilled.”
“There were talks with two possible candidates for Sept. 14,” Marquez told ESPN Deportes. “We talked about Mike Alvarado and Timothy Bradley. But I love important challenges, the most difficult ones, and to me it would be a great challenge to fight Timothy Bradley, who is also the world champion. And to me it would be a great challenge to fight him and also to try to win a fifth title in another division, which to me is something very pleasing and would bring me a lot of pride. Right now, that’s the biggest challenge — and I love the biggest possible challenges.”
Marquez, with his clean knockout of Pacquiao, said he was looking for a new challenge rather than facing Pacquiao again, even though Pacquiao still leads their series 2-1-1.
“Look, what is being said about Pacquiao — that a fifth fight wouldn’t make sense — well, it’s just like that,” Marquez told ESPN Deportes. “It still doesn’t make sense. To me, it wouldn’t be a challenge, and I need challenges. I would like to close my career in good standing and leave a legacy behind me. I want everyone to remember me for having faced the best fighters out there, and I believe Timothy Bradley is one of them. And why not look forward to finding that fifth title in a fifth weight class, which is something no one here in Mexico has achieved?
“So to me this is an important challenge, a difficult challenge, a tough challenge. But I always have the mindset that anything can be achieved.”
“I think we can do 500,000 or 600,000 buys,” Arum said. “We think the lowest is 400,000, with a shot at 600,000. Marquez is now bigger in Mexico than Chavez Jr. after the way he beat Manny, and Tim is coming off that great fight with Provodnikov. People know a good fight.