Die-hard basketball enthusiast Manny Pacquiao will not get into the ring to fight Timothy Bradley until he knows which team the Oklahoma City Thunder are playing in the NBA Finals.
A. Sherrod Blakely of Comcast Sportsnet New England reports that Pacquiao's promoter Bob Arum, CEO of Toprank, issued a statement that said the main event bout between Pacquiao and Bradley would not start until the final buzzer of Game 7 of the NBA's Eastern Conference Finals between the Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat sounds.
Both events are slated for Saturday evening (Sunday morning, PHL time).
"Now Manny, the Heat, the Celtics, and sports fans watching the basketball game won't have to make a choice between events," said Arum. "They will be able to watch both."
The pay-per-view boxing special will still begin at 9pm (9am on Sunday, PHL time), starting with the undercard fights. On the other hand, the NBA playoff starts at 8:30pm (8:30am on Sunday, PHL time).
The Miami Heat forced a decider in the best-of-seven series last Thursday (Friday, PHL time) on Boston's home court, behind an explosive 45-point performance by LeBron James.
Blakely asked Celtics head coach Doc Rivers for a reaction to Pacquiao's desire to see the basketball game, and to which Rivers replied, "He's a Celtics fan. What do you expect?"
Pacquiao earlier in the week said in a video interview for USA Today that he thought the Celtics would be this season's NBA champions.
It is not yet known if Pacquiao would delay his fight further, should the game go into overtime. - AMD, GMA News
source: gmanetwork.com
