By Chris Williams: While Bob Arum of Top Rank is offering Manny Pacquiao a fight against either Tim Bradley or Ruslan Provodnikov next, former WBC light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal believes that should look to fight WBA welterweight champion Marcos Maidana, because he sees that as an exciting fight for fans due to the aggressive fighting styles of Pacquiao and Maidana.
It would be a good fight except there’s a couple of things that are keeping match-ups like this from taking place: The Top Rank vs. Golden Boy Promotions feud and the HBO vs. Showtime obstacle. Maidana fights for Golden Boy Promotions, and fights on Showtime. Pacquiao is with Top Rank and fights on HBO. With those things standing in the way, we probably won’t ever see Pacquiao fighting Maidana in this lifetime.
“Honestly, it will be a great matchup; Pacquiao vs. [Marcos] Maidana,” Pascal said to Hustleboss. “Everybody is saying Maidana vs. Garcia, Maidana against Floyd; but Maidana vs. Pacquiao, two guys who like to throw punches, offensive fighters. That would be a hell of a fight I think.”
I’d much prefer to see Pacquiao fighting Maidana than I would see him fight Bradley again. The Pacquiao-Bradley fight was boring last year in large part to all the movement that Bradley did in the fight to avoid getting hit by Pacquiao. Provodnikov vs. Pacquiao is the same as Pacquiao vs. Maidana. Both fights are the same, and both would be good for fans.
I don’t think Arum is going to let Provodnikov get the fight with Pacquiao. I see Provodnikov’s name being mentioned as a way to get Bradley to accept a lower purse split and nothing more than that. Provodnikov has got the kind of power to where he’d either knock Pacquiao out or give him such a beating that it would knock a few years off of what he’s got left in the tank. I doubt Arum will let Pacquiao take that fight because either way it’s bad for Pacquiao.
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