Arum says forget Mayweather; he wants Pacquiao-Marquez 5

By Boxing News - 02/25/2013 - Comments

pac007By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum wasn’t too interested in hearing the conditions set by Floyd Mayweather Jr. for him to agree to fight Manny. When told that Mayweather wants Pacquiao to first avenge his losses to Tim Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez before he’ll consider giving him a fight, Arum told the Manilastandardtoday.com “Just forget about [Mayweather].”

In other words, Arum isn’t going to be looking to make the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight. Arum’s whole focus right is to try and put Pacquiao back in with Marquez, which in a way is a good thing because Arum is at least pointing Pacquiao in the right direction to get a Mayweather fight.

Pacquiao will still have to beat Marquez and then do the same against Bradley, and that’s a tall mountain for the Filipino to climb at this point. I don’t blame Arum for saying forget about Mayweather because Pacquiao has so much in front of him in terms of obstacles that it’s almost pointless to even talk about him fighting Mayweather.

Pacquiao will have to beat Marquez, and he’s not proven he can do this without controversy. In the first three fights, Marquez clearly got the better of Pacquiao, but was given two losses and a draw. Then in the 4th fight, Marquez knocked Pacquiao out cold in front of a worldwide audience in a 6th round stoppage.

Putting Pacquiao back in with a guy that has handled him in all four fights; it’s just not likely that Pacquiao is going to come out on top in that fight unless we’re talking about another controversial decision. If Arum can make that fight then I’m giving Marquez a great chance of beating Pacquiao yet again.

I don’t believe Arum will make a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight even if Pacquiao convincingly beats Marquez and Bradley in rematches. I just don’t see that happening. I think Arum will then match Pacquiao against another one of his Top Rank fighters in Brandon Rios, and then bring him back for more fights against Marquez and Bradley to where Arum has narrowed Pacquiao’s opponents to three for the remainder of his career with rematches occurring over and over.



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