By Robert Elmore: Manny Pacquiao had the opportunity to leave Top Rank in October of last year, but decided to re-up his contract with the promotional company. I guess Pacquiao figured that he has enough to deal with as a congressman so he decided to let Bob Arum continue to handle his affairs.
But I would like to say that I believe that if Pac left Top Rank the fight between he and Floyd Mayweather could happen. It might not be as juicy as it was 4 years ago, but it still will be a good fight. I can support my argument with hard facts.
The first fact is, fighters outside of Top Rank have not gotten a fights with Pacquiao as of late. His last 9 fights have been in house. Let’s start with the most recent; Timothy Bradley.
Bradley was signed to Gary Shaw, but there relationship began to go south. There was a 2 million dollar fight present to him from Golden Boy Promotions to fight Amir Khan. He rejected it. As soon as his contract was up with Shaw, he immediately signed with Top Rank. Top Rank wasted no time in putting him on the undercard of Pacquiao-Marquez 3 against Joel Casamayor. The fans and public already knew that the signing of Bradley meant a fight with Pacquiao. And no the fight became a reality a year later.
Shane Mosley. Mosley too was signed with Golden Boy. Mosley began to feel that his career was at a standstill. The Pacquiao fight was available and Mosley was coming off loss to Floyd Mayweather, but also a big pay day. The Pacquiao fight made financial sense to Mosley. But he had to leave Golden Boy for the fight to happen. So he sold his stock and joined the Top Rank stable. Shane was dropped soon after.
Juan Manuel Marquez. Marquez had been promoted by Golden Boy for a long time. Mosley had already left and Marquez was strongly considering the move. He was 37 at the time of this move and sought a financial guarantee. There had been talks of rematch (3rd fight) while he was still on Golden Boy. But Marquez, at no fault of his own, was caught between the rift between Arum and Oscar De La Hoya. The fight was not going to happen if Marquez was not under the Top Rank banner. So what did he do? He jumped ship, signed with Top Rank, got his dream fight, and remains an employee of Arum to this day.
Floyd Mayweather in 2006 sought for a fight with Oscar De La Hoya for twenty million dollars. Arum said “That’s not in the cards. He wants 20 million for the De La Hoya fight. It’s not there”. (Source: ESPN – Mayweather turns down 8 million to fight Margarito). When Mayweather left Top Rank, not only did Floyd get the 20 million he asked for, he got 5 million extra once everything was totaled up. This is why Brandon Rios is getting the fight with Pac.
Arum promotes both fighters so it’s easy to make. But I believe If Pacquiao went on his own, his purses would increase, the middleman (Top Rank) would be gone, and the money would go straight to him. He has MP8 Promotions. Why not use it to promote himself? Pacquiao has to know that Mayweather and Arum are not into sharing profits with each other so the talk of the fight is just that talk.
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