• Manny Pacquiao v Timothy Bradley

Pacquiao registers career-high weight for Bradley

Dan Rafael
June 9, 2012
Manny Pacquiao has never been so heavy © PA Photos
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Welterweight titlist Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley Jr both made weight on Friday afternoon for Saturday night's championship fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KOs), who will be making his fourth title defence, scaled a career-heavy 147 pounds, the division limit. Bradley (28-0, 12 KOs), a junior welterweight titlist who is moving up in weight, was 146 pounds.

"I'm ready for war," Bradley said after he looked intensely into Pacquiao's eyes during the posedown while Pacquiao smiled, as always.

Pacquiao, boxing's first eight-division champion, has always come in under the division limit since he has been a welterweight. When he beat Antonio Margarito for a junior middleweight title, the fight was contracted at a maximum weight of 150 pounds and he weighed in at 144 pounds.

So the fact that Pacquiao was 147 came as a surprise to many.

However, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said he didn't think anything of it.

"It means he ate breakfast and lunch before he weighed in," Arum said. "If he had to make 144, he would have made 144. If he had to make 143, he would have made 143. [Thursday] night when he left the gym he was 146½. So he ate. Don't make an issue of it. I'm telling you it doesn't matter."

This article first appeared on ESPN.com

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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