Arum says Pacquiao-Mayweather fight won’t happen in 2012, possibly 2013

By Boxing News - 04/04/2012 - Comments

Image: Arum says Pacquiao-Mayweather fight won't happen in 2012, possibly 2013By Chris Williams: If you were some of the few who boxing fans who are still interested in seeing Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao fight in 2012, I’ve got some bad news for you. According to Dan Rafael, Pacquiao and Mayweather won’t be fighting in 2012. Instead, Arum says they’ll talk about the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight in 2013. Arum wants to match Pacquiao back up with Juan Manuel Marquez for a fourth fight this fall, he said.

However, Marquez won’t be just given the Pacquiao rematch. He’ll have to work for it by facing another one of Arum’s fighters former WBA World lightweight champion Brandon Rios in a proposed fight for July 14th at the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. That’s a fight that Arum wants to make next, as long as Marquez beats his opponent Sergiy Fedchenko on April 14th and Rios defeats Richard Abril on the same night in their split site HBO pay-per-view card, which goes for a mere $44.95.

Rios-Abril is a mismatch, as is Marquez-Fedchenko, so it’s safe to say that Rios and Marquez will be fighting in July unless Marquez says no to the fight. He obviously would be doing Arum a HUGE favor by facing Rios because it’s a fight that will make a name for Rios because of Marquez’s popularity both in the United States and Mexico. Arum must have a strong feeling that Rios can beat Marquez because it’s hard to understand why he’d be willing to risk putting his unbeaten future star Rios in with Marquez in what seems to be a certain loss for Rios.

Perhaps Arum is thinking Rios will fight well enough in losing the fight that he’ll still come out ahead compared to where he is now beating guys that the casual fans have no clue about. Abril is a virtual unknown in the U.S among the casual boxing fans, as was the case with Rios’ last opponent John Murray. Marquez could end up with a bad deal out of all of this if he gets beaten by Rios, because he’ll have done Arum a favor by fighting Rios to give him a name, but then he probably won’t get the Pacquiao fight because of a loss to Rios. That’s not a good deal. Marquez shouldn’t have to fight one of Arum’s little known up and coming fighters like Rios in order to get a fight against Pacquiao. That just seems wrong.

As far as Pacquiao-Mayweather in 2013. That fight isn’t going to happen because Pacquiao sees himself as on even footing with Mayweather in terms of the purse split. Mayweather doesn’t see it that way, noting Pacquiao’s struggles in his last few fights.



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