By William Mackay: Bob Arum has made a formal offer to IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson and his manager/trainer Barry Hunter for a fight against Juan Manuel Marquez on July 14th at the Cowboy’s Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

This will be a pay-per-view bout and it would be part of Arum’s four fight tournament with Manny Pacquiao presumably facing another one of Arum’s Top Rank fighters Timothy Bradley in the other fight in the tourney. The winners of the two fights will meet up in November.

Although it’s doubtful that Arum’s offer is as good financially for Peterson as the $1.5 million rematch offer he received from Golden Boy Promotions recently for Peterson to fight a rematch against Amir Khan, Peterson will have the opportunity to fight Pacquiao if he can get by Bradley in their fight will likely take place in June. That’s the incentive for Peterson and he would have to work hard to get it rather than the automatic money he’d receive if he agrees to a rematch with Khan.

Arum told RingTV “We haven’t made a deal yet, but I talked to Barry this morning and hopefully, that will come together for July 14. Hopefully, we’ll be able to conclude July 14 for Cowboys Stadium. We’re holding Cowboys Stadium for the Marquez-Peterson fight.”

One other way that Arum will make it financially closer to the deal that Peterson would get for the Khan rematch is that he wants Peterson to take an easy fight before the Marquez fight so that he could slip in another payday before his fight with Marquez.

Peterson is said to be favoring the Khan rematch right now but that could change if Arum increases the offer. He clearly needs Peterson to be part of his tourney and is going to have to make it worthwhile for him to walk away from the hefty offer that Golden Boy made for the Khan rematch.