Mayweather: If Pacquiao loses, it’s all over for Bob Arum

By Boxing News - 03/03/2012 - Comments

Image: Mayweather: If Pacquiao loses, it's all over for Bob ArumBy Chris Williams: Floyd Mayweather Jr. sees Top Rank promoter Bob Arum as not really wanting to risk putting his cash cow WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao in with Mayweather Jr. in what be a very, very risky fight for the 33-year-old Pacquiao. Mayweather believes that Arum has lost his big named fighters Miguel Cotto and Mayweather and doesn’t want to risk having Pacquaio get beat, hence the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight hasn’t been made.

Mayweather told the telegraph.co.uk “You’ve got to realize this: Bob Arum no longer has Oscar De La Hoya, Bob Arum no longer has Floyd Mayweather, he don’t have Miguel Cotto; his last one standing is Manny Pacquiao. So if Manny Pacquiao loses, it’s all over for him.”

To be sure, a loss for Pacquiao to Mayweather – or anyone – will likely be a huge blow for Arum because it could possibly result in Pacquiao making less money in future fights and it might hasten his move towards retirement. If Pacquiao were to face Mayweather and get beaten especially bad, he might up and retire rather than facing Mayweather again and getting trounced one more time. And you got to assume that Pacquiao’s cut of the financial pie would be a lot less in a Mayweather-Pacquiao rematch than it would be for the first fight.

Arum has some other fairly popular fighters – Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Juan Manuel Lopez, Yuriorkis Gamboa, Kelly Pavlik, Brandon Rios, Nonito Donaire, and Timothy Bradley, but those aren’t pay-per-view fighters. Chavez Jr. and Donaire hasn’t been put in with the truly dangerous guys in their division. Chavez Jr. isn’t being matched with Sergio Martinez, and Donaire isn’t being put in with Guillermo Rigondeaux. Some boxing fans think that Arum is trying to make Donaire into another Pacquiao-like guy and is matching him against certain fighters to ensure that he doesn’t get beaten before the big money starts rolling in – if it ever does. Chavez Jr. has a huge following but it’s difficult to imagine Arum being successful into turning Chavez Jr. into a PPV star if he’s being steered around Martinez fight after fight. This isn’t lost on the boxing fans, who wonder why Chavez Jr. won’t fight Martinez. But besides that, Chavez Jr. isn’t really exciting to watch because he lacks big power and tends to bloat up into the 180s and fights inside but not impressively. He’s mostly popular due to his famous father Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., but not exciting to watch like Chavez Sr. was in his prime.

With Pacquiao beaten, it could slow things down for Arum. If Pacquaio retires, the gravy train will dramatically be slowed down because Arum’s top fighters aren’t really PPV attractions as of yet and it’s unclear whether they ever will be. I know some people would be willing to pay to see Donaire, Chavez Jr., Bradley, Pavlik, Gamboa and Rios in their fights against whoever, but I don’t imagine a lot of people would be willing to fork over $54.99 to see them. And I have serious doubts they ever will in large numbers no matter how carefully Arum matches them to make them look especially good. Personally, I would never pay a dime to see any of those fighters fight, because I don’t see them as being the very best in their divisions. They’re all good fighters but not the very best. I see Rigondeaux beating Donaire, Martinez destroying Chavez Jr., Rios beating Gamboa, Martinez beating Pavlika again, Andre Berto and Victor Ortiz beating Bradley.



Comments are closed.