Sunday may be Pacquiao vs. Bradley III, but it seems as if there is not much to talk about.
While a fight involving Manny Pacquiao usually equals to ‘national holiday’ in the Philippines, his third match with Timothy Bradley will be something else. One month after the bout with Bradley, Pacquiao’s status as a politician will be on the line, as he guns for one of the 12 seats in the Philippine Senate.
Any promotional material that exceeds the limits set by the Fair Elections Act of the Commission of Elections may lead to a national candidate’s disqualification. Thus, with Pacquiao also running for Senator in this May’s elections, very little promotion was made for the fight here in the Philippines.
COMELEC, on its part, has allowed the fight to be aired here, since they received no formal complaints in relation to his candidacy. Despite that, the only known mention of a blow-by-blow multi-platform coverage is through a series of promotional videos from Solar Sports (see example below) and an announcement made by GMA online.
That said, in order to comply with the Fair Elections Act, neither Solar Sports nor GMA were able to aggressively promote the fight. Instead, they made use of news clips to inform viewers of the two fighters and the event itself.
With so little noise, not to mention Pacquiao’s controversial remarks on the LGBT community in February, the third installment of Pacquiao vs. Bradley is expected to be the least hyped of them all. The expectation that Pacquiao is using the fight just to gain the voters’ confidence may convince them not to watch the fight at all, because it may hurt the chances of other, more deserving candidates.
On Sunday, Pacquiao steps into the ring for perhaps the final time. But the question is, will you watch?
From the Tube 
I’ll rather watch #PiliPinasDebates2016 Vice Presidential Debates on CNN Philippines than the #PacBradIII. I won’t reiterate the reasons because I wrote that comment on your article on his preceding bout against Mayweather.
Exactly. So much for Pacquiao’s conflicting mind.
And by the way, I wrote an article before regarding Pacquiao’s many non-boxing distractions (link below). It really hurts to see him play so many roles at the same time, that it somehow affected his boxing career in recent years.
https://fromthetube.wordpress.com/2013/05/21/disliking-manny-pacquiaos-non-boxing-roles/
I already knew it. 😦
Will rather not to watch this…. P.S. I am not voting for Manny either. I only recognized him as a boxer, not a politician, basketball player etc. (juggle of all trades)
Indeed. With him out for good, I guess Donaire’s now our best hope. And he’s no Pacman in any sense of the world.
Congrats Manny. Well done!
Halatang nagtitipid na ang Solar. Hindi sila nagpadala ng mga commentators sa mismong lugar ng laban sa Las Vegas, instead sa studio ng Solar ginagawa. And of course, may mga political ads sa delayed telecast ng GMA, including the ad of Pacquiao himself
P.S. Just observed on the IG account of Noel Zarate.
Ebidensya ‘to na they’re on the decline. Pacquiao’s retirement could spell the end for the network soon. This is so unfortunate.
Pingback: Thoughts after Pac-Bradley (in 150 words or less) – JRDV'S WORLD
Here’s my opinion regarding my said fight: https://jrdvworld.wordpress.com/2016/04/10/thoughts-after-pac-bradley-in-150-words-or-less/
And as usual, ASAP’s first replay episode this year was aired, but this time there were no two Filipino movies before that, so ABS-CBN’s usual Sunday daytime schedule is observed.
However, Happy Truck HAPPinas was aired live. Both ABS and TV5 took advantage of a seemingly lethargic fight, thus the regular programming.
The fight made Pacquiao leaped to third place in the senatorial survey. If it happened come May 9, then that’s the problem with the voters for not realizing the consequences of his fight during the campaign period.
Naku, naku, naku, GMA and Solar Sports will be guilty for violating the law.
If the country voted smarter, like the South Cotabateños back in 2007 (when Manny ran as a congressman of the 1st District of South Cotabato against then-incumbent Rep. Darlene Antonino-Custudio), Manny will lose the Senate race. As for this case, there’s nothing we can do to stop Manny pursuing his Senatorial bid.
Let’s just hope that the voters think twice about Pacquiao’s campaign. After all, they can’t vote for someone who’s just using a non-campaign-related event to gain voters’ sympathy.