Arum: Pacquiao won’t be fighting until September

By Boxing News - 01/16/2013 - Comments

arum45By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says his fighter Manny Pacquiao likely won’t be back in the ring until September when he faces Juan Manuel Marquez again. Arum had been hoping to get an April fight for Pacquiao outside of the United States, but he was unable to find a country to have the fight take place.

He tried Singapore, Manila and Macau, but was unable to find a venue for the fight for a variety of reasons.

Arum said to Greg Leon at boxingtalk.com “Todd [duboeuf] was over in Macau and we can’t get a date with the arena…Singapore is not an option and I don’t think we go to for Manila for the fight, so I think they’re going to have to wait till September.”

That sure ended quickly, didn’t it? I wonder why Arum didn’t consider a country like Mexico? I’m sure he could fill an arena if he put Pacquiao and Marquez on the same card, or at least filled the card with some of Arum’s Mexican stable fighters. There are a lot of options besides Singapore, Macau and Manila you would think.

Some boxing fans think Arum doesn’t want to take a risk of Pacquiao fighting in April and getting knocked out cold in a tune-up because of the unknown about whether he can still take a hard shot without falling down. Pacquiao was hit hard twice by Marquez last month and both times Pacquiao went down in a heap on the canvas. Before that fight, Marquez had never been considered a big puncher before, yet he was able to put Pacquiao down like a sack of bricks each time he hit him with power.

I can see why Arum might not want to take that risk with Pacquiao. If he loses the fight, then Arum might have a hard time trying to sell a fifth fight between Pacquiao and Marquez. But by not fighting in April and waiting until September, Arum, Marquez and Pacquiao will likely make a killing in terms of PPV buys from fans who want to see how Pacquiao responds.

The fifth fight could bring in as much as 1.5 million buys under the best case scenario. Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach is under the impression the fight will break the all-time PPV mark of 2.4 million buys set by Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2007. If Arum believes the same then it’s understandable why he might not be too excited about putting the Filipino in a fight in April because if he loses then the interest in a 5th fight between Pacquiao and Marquez will plummet big time.



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