Why Manny Pacquiao decided to fight Timothy Bradley for a third time

Manny Pacquiao arrived Monday at Los Angeles International Airport from the Philippines, the first step in a familiar routine to prepare for yet another multi-million dollar fight.

This time, though, it’s different.

The crowd was far smaller than the last time he’d made the same trip, for the much-heralded Floyd Mayweather bout.

He’d lost that bout, performed poorly and tore his rotator cuff. He was sued in the aftermath by angry fans who were upset that they’d paid record prices for a pay-per-view when he was not healthy.

And now, he’s chosen to face Timothy Bradley on April 9 at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas, a bout that has been met with plenty of objections from fans and media.

Promoter Bob Arum framed it as Pacquiao’s decision to pick Bradley, whom he fought in 2012 and 2014, out of a field that included Terence Crawford and Amir Khan.

Pacquiao, though, told Yahoo Sports on Tuesday that Arum was only partly correct.

“They asked me about [fighting] Bradley and I said, ‘No problem,’ ” Pacquiao said.

He said his shoulder feels fine, but he plans to be examined by surgeon Neal S. ElAttrache this week in Los Angeles to make certain.

Few knew during his training camp for Mayweather that he’d injured a shoulder, but Yahoo Sports first reported following the bout that he’d been injured several weeks out and had been approved by the United States Anti-Doping Agency to take pain-killing injections.

But the Nevada Athletic Commission, which said it did not learn of the injury until the night of the fight, did not allow him to take a shot that night.

That, however, didn’t seem a problem early. Trainer Freddie Roach was happy with how Pacquiao was punching during his warm-up in the locker room, and Pacquiao said Tuesday to Yahoo Sports that he felt fine in the first three rounds.

He re-injured himself, he said, in the fourth round during a flurry as Mayweather was pinned on the ropes. It was one of his few sustained offensive outbursts of the fight.

Though he aggravated the injury in the fourth round, it wasn’t a new one, nor was it a recent one.

Pacquiao said he originally injured it in 2009 when he fell off a jet ski.

“It happened in early 2009 and I still knocked out [Miguel] Cotto [that November],” Pacquiao said. “What happened this time, I increased my training for this fight. I was training hard and it happened [that I re-aggravated] the injury.”

He said he first felt pain during the bout when he hit Mayweather with a right hook in the fourth round. He felt he stunned Mayweather and tried to step up an onslaught.

But he wasn’t able to capitalize and said he felt something was wrong.

“I just felt no power, from my hand to my shoulder,” he said. “Before the fight, I was OK. I felt something when I threw a punch. It was an accident, something that just happened.”

He lost the fight and, in the process, lost a lot of fans. Whether he’s as big as he once was, when he was neck-and-neck with Mayweather as not only the best boxers in the world, but also its most popular, remains to be seen.

There was much outrage about his choice to fight Bradley, because fans felt they’d seen enough of that. Bradley won their 2012 bout by one of the most controversial decisions of recent times. Few other than the two judges and those on Bradley’s team felt Bradley won the fight.

Arum was so outraged by the verdict that he called for the Nevada Attorney General to investigate.

In 2014, they met again and Pacquiao won a clear, decisive victory. He insisted he’s going to retire and plans to run for the Senate in the Philippines.

“If you want to see me after this fight, you will have to come to the Philippines,” he said.

He took a hands-off approach to the opponent selection process. All throughout, Arum portrayed it as 100 percent Pacquiao’s decision. He said Top Rank had gathered video of all potential opponents as well as contract demands and other business information about them and sent it to Pacquiao and adviser Michael Koncz.

Pacquiao would use the tapes and the information to make the pick. But Pacquiao wasn’t as adamant about Bradley as it may have seemed.

“Bradley has improved a lot since we had our last fight,” Pacquiao said. “He fought [Brandon] Rios and he knocked him out with a body punch.”

But when he was pressed why he chose Bradley when so many were openly hoping he’d choose Crawford, Khan or even Adrien Broner, he opened a window to his mind.

Pacquiao often has a lax attitude about that sort of thing and he said Tuesday he’d have fought anyone put in front of him.

“I don’t care who my opponent is,” he said. “I have no problem with anybody.”

But Bradley will be it and then he’ll be off to a new and different type of life. He’s been criticized in the Philippines for his poor attendance record as a member of the House of Representatives, but the Senate is a full-time job there.

He said he’s ready to do what it takes as a full-time politician. Even though Roach has indicated he expects Pacquiao to fight again after Bradley, Pacquiao insisted on Tuesday he’s through after this bout.

He said he had no disappointments and was happy with his career, but is ready to move on, even though he will miss it.

“It feels sad to be retiring from boxing,” he said. “In the beginning I started boxing to help my family. I'm retiring to help my people, my country.”