Will Showtime be content with any opponent Arum puts in with Pacquiao?

By Boxing News - 01/23/2011 - Comments

By Chris William: Now that Bob Arum has moved his fighter Manny Pacquiao over to CBS/Showtime away from HBO, you have to wonder whether Showtime will stand up on their hind legs and say something if Arum continues to match Pacquiao against weak and/or old and faded fighters in the future on their network without saying something about it vetoing some of these fights that they may not like.

HBO has a new standard that they’re sticking to by trying to put together fights that are competitive match-ups instead of just one-sided affairs. Arum didn’t like that HBO said no to him recently when he wanted to put on a $50 Pay-per-view fight involving Miguel Cotto vs. 37-year-old Ricardo Mayorga, who has been considered a shot fighter in the minds of many boxing fans for at least the last five years.

Pacquiao has a PPV fight coming up against 39-year-old Shane Mosley on May 7th. Few people are giving Mosley any chance at all, and even many of Pacquiao’s fans are angry that Arum has decided to match him with the shot Mosley instead of someone like Juan Manuel Marquez or Andre Berto. This is the kind of fight that may get casual fans purchasing it because they’ll have heard of Mosley but they won’t realize how old and shot he is now until after they purchase the fight and notice that Mosley can’t pull the trigger anymore.

I can just see how many upset Showtime viewers there will be after this fight because they’re probably not going to be happy with paying $50 or $60 to see Pacquiao beat up on an old guy. You have to wonder who will come next for Pacquiao. Will Arum turn around and put Pacquiao back in with Cotto? That was a mismatch last time they fought and I can’t see anything changing in a second fight. There’s already talk of Arum saying he wants that fight. Will Showtime just go ahead and eat this fight, and have even more potentially upset fans after Pacquiao wipes out Cotto.



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