Pacquiao Vs. Bradley: Manny Watching Heat Vs. Celtics Before Heading To Arena, But Situation ‘Is A PR Ploy’

Yesterday on Yahoo! Sports radio, Bob Arum made it clear that Manny Pacquiao was a huge Celtics fan when explaining that they wouldn’t be starting the main event bout between Pacquiao and Tim Bradley until the Celtics vs. Heat game 7 came to a close.

Yahoo Sports writer Kevin Iole tweeted “Pacman in his suite at Mandalay Bay watching NBA right now” about twenty minutes before the start of the pay-per-view.

Manny as a diehard Celtics fan seemed a little hard to swallow at the time, and Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix somewhat confirmed that. Mannix also confirmed what I had said when this whole possible delay came to light, namely that there’s not much risk of the game running into the fight as main eventers don’t head toward the ring until midnight.

Here’s Chris’ tweets about the whole situation:

Let’s clear things up Re: Pacquiao/Celtics. No. 1, most important, IT’S A PR PLOY! 8:30 tip, MP likely won’t fight till 12:15. Irrelevant

No. 2, anyone that thinks MP will be sitting in the back, watching the Celtics-Heat is nuts. He will be warming up, focusing on fight

Will he catch a glimpse? Maybe. Will he be told the score. More likely. Will he refuse to come to the ring if it goes OT? No shot.

He also confirmed to Scott Christ of Bad Left Hook that Celtics “SuperFan” Manny didn’t even know who the Celtics were playing. So any idea that he has a deep investment in the game is a crazy person.

Stay tuned for live updates and results throughout the night.