Arum: Pacquiao to fight Rios or Alvarado on October 13th

By Boxing News - 04/23/2013 - Comments

pacBy Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao’s choices for his next fight on October 13th are down to Mike Alvarado or Brandon Rios, according to his promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank. Arum had wanted to match Pacquiao up against Juan Manuel Marquez or Tim Bradley, but it looks like those two fighters will face each other next with the winner possibly facing Pacquiao in 2014.

However, if Marquez emerges as the winner, a fight between him and Pacquiao would likely only take place if he’s given $20 million because he’s looking for much bigger money the next time he faces Pacquiao after having received only $6 million the last time he fought him.

Arum said to the Manila Standard that Pacquiao will “fight either Alvarado or Rios.”
Either one of those guys could hand Pacquiao another knockout loss. In fact, I fully expect Alvarado to KO Pacquiao if Arum makes that fight next because Alvarado can really punch and he’s a young 33. Pacquiao is a year older at 34, but he’s got a lot of mileage on him and he didn’t start his career at light welterweight like Alvarado.

That’s not that surprising that Pacquiao will face Alvarado or Rios because Arum only has a small number of guys that are in the mix for a Pacquiao fight and all of them are in his Top Rank stable. So if Pacquiao beats Rios or Alvarado, then he’ll possibly face the Bradley-Marquez depending on how negotiations go. Win or lose, Pacquiao would then face either Bradley or Marquez followed by Rios or Alvarado.

I see it being a mixture of these fights taking place for the remainder of Pacquiao’s career without any new guys being added unless Arum wants to insert some of his new Top Rank signees Jessie Vargas or Luis Carlos Abregu in the mix in order to increase their value to his stable. I kind of have a hard time believing he’d do that but anything is possible.

I bet Arum isn’t happy with the thought of having Pacquiao face the much less popular Alvarado and Rios because neither of those fights will bring the kind of green stuff that a fifth fight with Marquez would, and they both present a lot of danger for Pacquiao given how hard Rios and Alvarado can punch.



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