Arum confirms Mayweather not in the picture for Pacquiao’s next fight

By Boxing News - 12/27/2013 - Comments

floyd400By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says that Floyd Mayweather Jr. is not one of the names he is looking at for Manny Pacquiao’s next fight on April 12th. Arum says that the two names that he’s looking at to match against Pacquiao are Tim Bradley or Juan Manuel Marquez.

For fans hoping to see a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight in April or May, you’ll have to be satisfied with either a Pacquiao-Bradley rematch or a Pacquiao-Marquez rematch. Either way, we’re talking retread opponents for Pacquiao.

“There is nothing with Floyd,” Arum said to the Manila Bulletin.

I’m not sure why Arum is still mentioning Marquez’s name as a possible opponent for Pacquiao because he’s repeatedly said that he never, ever wants to fight Pacquiao again in this lifetime. With Arum still including Marquez’s name as a possible candidate for Pacquiao, it gives one the impression that Marquez’s name is being used to keep Bradley from asking for too much money in the negotiations. Marquez is not even in play for this fight, yet his name is still being mentioned. The only guy in play for Pacquiao’s next fight is Bradley and that to me is incredibly boring.

I just hope for Pacquiao’s sake that this will be the last time that he has to fight Bradley, because it would be disappointing if Arum keeps trotting out Bradley as Pacquiao’s future opponent, if for no other reason because he’s pretty much got no one else to match him up against in his stable. Once Pacquiao badly whips one of Arum’s Top Rank stable fighters, it’s pretty much impossible for Arum to keep matching him up against that fighter over and over again. But when it’s close like it was with Bradley and Pacquiao, then that fighter gets trotted back out again rather than having Pacquiao move on to more interesting opponents.

I suspect that Mayweather won’t be in play for Pacquiao’s second fight in 2014 in September either. I just don’t think Mayweather will ever be in play for Pacquiao as long as he’s with Arum. My guess is Pacquiao will either fight Bradley for a third time in September or face Mike Alvarado or maybe Ruslan Provodnikov.



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