By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum firmly believes that unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. will come around and eventually agree to fighting Arum’s fighter Manny Pacquiao in one of the Asian countries sooner or later.
Why Mayweather would ever agree to that is the unknown. Unlike Pacquiao, Mayweather won’t get a tax break by fighting in Asia. The tax rate will be the same. The only thing Mayweather will get from fighting Pacquiao in Asia is a fight with Pacquiao in front of what would be a huge Asian audience.
Somehow, I don’t see Mayweather ever agreeing to that, and I hope Arum isn’t holding his breath waiting for Mayweather to willingly agree to fight Pacquiao in Asia because I don’t see it happening in this lifetime.
Arum said this about a potential Pacquiao-Mayweather fight in the future: “Never say never. I think when Floyd realizes the economic benefits of doing a fight in Asia, maybe at the new Singapore stadium … maybe that will open up a dialogue for a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight in Asia.”
The only way that Mayweather would say yes to a fight against Pacquiao in Asia is if the pay per view money from Chinese audiences is huge. Pacquiao’s November 23rd fight against Brandon Rios in Macao, China will be a good test to how much money can be made from the Chinese fan base on PPV.
That fight is selling for $5 on PPV in China, and if brings in huge money, then I can see Mayweather wanting to get in on that action if he can get a nice cut of the cash.
He’s not going to agree to fight with Pacquiao, if his cut is going to be less than him, especially if Pacquiao gets knocked out in his next fight against Rios. That’ll be three straight losses for Manny, and I can see that scaring Mayweather off because the PPV money that Pacquiao-Rios fight makes in China, might not be as good if he loses that fight. You can’t keep selling Pacquiao’s fight on PPV forever with him getting beaten over and over.
At some point there’s going to be diminishing returns with less and less people wanting to pay to see Pacquiao fight. Mayweather would take a lot of flak from fans if he were to fight a guy with three straight losses. I really don’t see Pacquiao beating Rios at all. I see him getting knocked out again, and that’s why I believe Arum is silly to be talking about a future fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao, because there won’t be a demand for that fight after Rios knocks Pacquiao out cold.
I don’t blame Arum for talking up a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight now, because just by mentioning the fight, it’s likely to increase the PPV numbers in the U.S by fans who will purchase the Pacquiao-Rios fight hoping to see Pacquiao fight Mayweather after that. Believe me, it’s not going to happen. Even if Pacquiao beats Rios, Arum will likely match Pacquiao up immediately with one of his Top Rank stable fighters like Mike Alvarado, Miguel Cotto, Tim Bradley or put him back in with Juan Manuel Marquez. I see Mayweather as the very, very end of the line when Pacquiao has a huge 6 or 7 fight losing streak, and there’s just no more fights Arum can put him in with with his Top Rank stable fighters. At that point, I see Arum looking for one last cash out fight with Pacquiao against Mayweather. But there’s no way Mayweather will take that fight at that point.
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