By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum will reportedly be getting together with Juan Manuel Marquez for dinner this Wednesday night to talk over the details for a possible fifth fight between Marquez and Manny Pacquiao for September. Arum BADLY wants this fight, as does his fighter Pacquiao, who was knocked completely out by Marquez last December in their fourth fight together.
Arum said in an interview with the Manila Standard “We have to figure what the deal is…he [Marquez] is not negotiating with me. He is negotiating with Manny.”
The last sentence was Arum’s response to the news that Marquez wants to fight Brandon Rios instead of Pacquiao for his next fight. In other words, it doesn’t look like Arum is eager to help put together a fight between Marquez and Rios, who Arum also promotes.
Arum might be willing to make a Marquez-Rios fight if Marquez stays firm about not wanting to fight Pacquiao ever again, but Marquez will likely have to wait until Arum has put Rios in with Pacquiao because that appears to be the direction that Arum is taking Rios in.
He’s not going to want Marquez to beat Rios before he’s had the chance to match Rios and Pacquiao together because that would take away another one of Arum’s chess pieces to match against Pacquiao. If Rios gets beaten by Marquez, then Arum would be stuck with putting WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley in with Pacquiao in September.
It’s clear that Arum will be matching Bradley back up with Pacquiao anyway at some point in the future because his Top Rank stable only has a few fighters around the same weight class as Pacquiao, and Arum likes to keep his fights in house. However, the Pacquiao-Bradley fight won’t make nearly as much money as the Pacquiao-Marquez 5th fight, and that’s the fight that Arum wants to put together next because of how much interest and revenue it would bring in.
A fifth fight between Pacquiao and Marquez would likely bring in huge amounts of cash for Pacquiao, Marquez and Arum. A Pacquiao-Bradley fight would do well, but not nearly as good as the Marquez vs. Pacquiao fight due to the huge amount of Mexican fans that Marquez is able to attract.
Marquez received something in the neighborhood of a 76-24 deal the last time he fought Pacquiao. That number will have to go up if Arum is going to talk Marquez into a 5th fight. Arum might be able to get Marquez to agree to a 60-40 deal, but I think a 50-50 deal is out of the question. Marquez can get a great deal if he’s willing to walk away from the negotiations. Marquez arguably deserves a 50-50 deal because a huge portion of the U.S PPV money is coming from his Mexican fans, but I don’t think he’s going to get it.
Ideally, Marquez should have his manager with him when he meets with Arum on Wednesday so that if Arum starts talking money, they can be in a better position to wrangle a good deal. The fact that Marquez has even agreed to meet with Arum suggests that he’s interested in facing Pacquiao again because why else would he agree to talk to Arum?
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