Manny Pacquiao has now put himself in the conversation for the best pound-for-pound fighter of all time following his scintillating win over Keith Thurman to wrest his WBA (Super) welterweight belt last July 20.

Timothy Bradley, a former boxing champ and now full-time boxing analyst, believes the Filipino fighting champion can even elevate his place among boxing greats if he’s able to take the scalp of another highly-touted fighter in the 147-pound weight class: the reigning IBF titleholder Errol Spence Jr.

In an interview with FightHype.com, Bradley said that he wasn’t surprised with Pacquiao’s victory even though he picked Thurman to win the fight.

He just saw hungry 40-year-old Pacman, grinding it out with a young opponent who was supposed to win the match.

“I just saw a hungry Pacquiao, a hungry, money and angry dog.

I picked Thurman to win the fight. Thurman was supposed to win the fight. It’s a 40-year-old Pacquiao now, it’s not a primed, seasoned Pacquiao. You saw the second half of the fight, Pacquiao did pull back a little bit, conditioning, mouth wide-open.

Thurman did a great job by going down to the body of Pacquiao, but he wasn’t consistent. He shouldn’t have lost that fight. He’s bigger, he’s stronger, he’s the longer guy, he can box, he has good legs, he’s fresher of the two and he lost to Manny Pacquiao.

He put up a good fight, but Pacquiao won the fight without any question, without a doubt," Bradley said in FightHype video below:

The Errol Spence challenge

Pacquiao is taking a well-deserved hiatus from boxing for the remainder of the year after back-to-back victories in 2019.

Although it would probably take until next year for his promoters to name the next opponent, the general presumption is Pacquiao will take winner of the Errol Spence vs.

Shawn Porter welterweight title unification fight on September 28 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Pacquiao, who is expected to attend the fight, will be in line to double the paycheck he earned from the Thurman fight, should he decide to face either of the two elite welterweights. The Spence fight, in particular, presents itself as the most intriguing bout for Pacman since the undefeated American fighter is widely considered among the top fighters in the world right now.

Bradley couldn’t agree more on how huge of a showdown the Spence fight would be for Pacquiao. While a second showdown with Floyd Mayweather Jr. would definitely give him another $100+ million pay, a match with Spence would give Pacquiao the opportunity to create another legacy-defining moment in the ring.

Bradley, who fought Pacquiao three times, stressed that if Pacquiao manages to beat a primed Errol Spence, whether that be through the scorecards or via knockout, that win would catapult the Filipino fighter to the stratosphere of boxing elites. He added that a win would make him a top-3 fighter all-time easily.

“Pacquiao is on a high right now. Beating a guy like Thurman, you gotta rank him high, that’s up there, that’s a young gun,” Bradley said on Pacquiao beating Thurman via FightHype.

"Step into a guy like Shawn Porter, brutal, rough and tough, but hey you can count out Pacquiao, Pac ain’t no joke. Step into a guy like Errol Spence, now you are asking for trouble. Errol Spence is no joke. He’s bigger, longer, but if Pacquiao could pull that off - a win over the young IBF champ - you can consider him easily top-3 best of all time," Bradley added.

For all the marbles

Whether it would be Mayweather or Spence as his next opponent, Pacquiao faces another chance to add more feathers to his cap with a win over either of the two fighters.

Of course, the Mayweather bout presents itself as the most lucrative fight of the two, as proven by the whopping $500 million generated in their first fight for 2015.

On the other hand, the Spence fight would also put Pacquiao in position to pocket as much as $40 million in guaranteed purse, plus a portion of the pay-per-view revenue.

As for his legacy, it’s safe to say that the ghost of the 2015 loss to Mayweather has haunted Pacquiao up to this moment. He really wants that rematch to prove that he’s the better fighter of this generation. With Spence, Pacquiao can show to the world that he’s a generational talent and that his legacy would be based more on the longevity of his excellence in this brutal sport of boxing.
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