by: Percy D. Della
SACRAMENTO—HBO’s Pacquiao vs Bradley 24/7 is turning out to be a forgettable bore.
The second episode of the cable giant’s main marketing platform for Manny Pacquiao’s June 9th WBO welterweight title match with unbeaten Timothy Bradley was aired last Saturday night.
It has not been a big deal. Listen to my son-in-law Brandon Brown:
“The first installment got me drowsy, the second episode dragged me down to sleep.”
The guys around Brandon’s barbecue grill over the Memorial Day weekend couldn’t agree more. They said the infomercial masked as a documentary is doing a lousy job selling the fight.
To recap, the first two episodes of 24/7 true to the series anthem, have stepped into the lives of the boxers before they step into the ring—but more than anyone would care to know or watch.
The episodes have shown too much backdrop away from the punching bags—Pacquiao shooting his favorite pistol in one scene and presiding over a bible study the next, strumming a guitar and singing a religious hymn in one instance and tooling around in his Ferrari in another, etc. etc.
For his part, Bradley has been filmed partying with family and friends, dropping his step kids to school and talking about his wife and the challenges growing up in the Southern California desert town of Cathedral City.
Certifiably crazy about the Filipino ring icon, Brandon’s bunch shared a common view that the next installments—for broadcast this Sunday, Philippine time, and on the eve of the fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas—need to get in character and in gear. They said that so far, 24/7, supposed to be the fight’s biggest squawk box has been a yawn instead of a yelp.
I couldn’t help putting in my two-cent’s worth. I said that via 24/7 the fighters have got to show more raw emotion, more trash talking. Pacquiao and Bradley need to bare more fangs, start yapping more about boxing and their ring prowess, and showing a lot of the wares they’d bring to the fight, to create considerable PPV (pay-per-view) traffic.
Even friends I ran into on my last day at work Thursday were not impressed with the series.
“HBO has to focus more on Pacquiao as a fighter, not as a choirboy,” noted Greg Nabong.
“24/7 ought to show gym training, not praying,” said Juan Valdes, a Latino who is a Pacquiao fan.
Several events loom large in the worrywart stance of Pacquiao partisans.
These include the uproar over Manny’s recent pronouncement against same–sex marriage that has all but alienated the gay community and its supporters, the fact that Bradley is a talented fighter but is the most obscure of Pacquiao’s opponents to date, and Manny’s long-running war with Floyd Mayweather Jr. for the title of undisputed PPV king of the universe.
Of late, boxing websites have been playing up the derby for PPV numbers, essential for Pacquiao’s managers to negotiate a reasonable split in revenues with Mayweather if the much-awaited fight between the two ring megastars happens.
Mayweather started his 87-day prison sentence for domestic violence Friday, June 1, safe with his claim as the reigning PPV champion.
His last bout with Miguel Cotto on May 5 registered 1.5 million buys.
Pacquiao—the last time he fought a lesser known opponent in Joshua Clottey—brought in only 660,000 PPV buys.
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