Arum thinks Pacquiao can still be as good he once was

By Chris Williams: Bob Arum of Top Rank thinks his fighter Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KO’s) bill bounce back from his last two defeats to shine against Brandon Rios (31-1-1, 23 KO’s) on November 23rd to show the fighter that Pacquiao once was before ran into trouble in losses to Tim Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez.

Pacquiao’s troubles go back before just his last two fights. He appeared to lose to Marquez in their third fight in November of 2011 but was given a 12 round majority decision. You can make a pretty good argument that Pacquiao has lost his last three fights, not his last two fights.

Arum said to the Sunday Morning Post as quoted by the Manilastandardtoday “I’m very optimistic that he’s [Pacquiao] going to look great. You can’t believe how excited everybody is.”

I think Arum might have some problems if Pacquiao gets knocked out again. That would be three straight losses and Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach is saying he believes that it would be time for Pacquiao to retire if he loses a third straight time.

Roach might advise Pacquiao to hang up the gloves, and you would hope that Arum would be ready to do the same thing rather than letting Pacquiao go out there and lose to Arum’s Top Rank stable fighters one after another.

Pacquiao and Rios will be facing each other at the Cotai Arena, Venetian Resort, Macao, Macao S.A.R., China. This is Pacquiao’s first fight in Macao, China, and Arum is really excited about it because he’s making it a pay per view fight for Chinese boxing fans with a price tag of $5.

If it sells well to Chinese audiences, I can’t see Arum letting that cash fly away with Pacquiao retiring if he gets knocked out by Rios. That’s Arum’s #1 fighter and it would be extremely difficult to see his future Chinese PPV cards doing well without Pacquiao unless Arum is going to make former two time Olympic Gold Medalist Zou Shiming a PPV fighter. I don’t know how Arum can do this with Zou having fought only once as a pro.

As far as Arum thinking Pacquiao can go back to being the fighter he once was, I don’t see that as being realistic. Pacquiao didn’t just look bad in his last fight. He’s looked bad in his last three fights dating back to 2011 and that’s a sign that he’s either aging or he’s got too much ring wear. Pacquiao is 34 now and will be turning 35 in December.