By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum hasn’t given up on the idea of having his No. 1 money fighter Manny Pacquiao fight outside of the United States in the future. In fact, Arum reportedly is interested in staging Pacquiao’s September fight in possibly Russia, Macao or Macao, China. Arum already tried having Pacquiao fight in Macao last November, and the pay-per-view results were disastrous in Pacquiao beating Brandon Rios. But the the less than staggering PPV numbers, 475,000, could be the result of Pacquiao fighting Rios rather than the fight not doing well due to the venue.
Arum told the Manila Bulletin that there are a lot of “rich people” in Russia who would be interested in having Pacquiao fight over there. It would likely need to involve Pacquiao fighting a Russian fighter like Ruslan Provodnikov in order for that to happen, and it’s unknown whether the U.S. fans would go for the idea of paying to see Pacquiao fight a former ESPN2 fighter like Provodnikov. But if Pacquiao is taxed at much lower rate than he is in the U.S., he might be able to come out ahead.
I think Arum would be making a mistake in matching Pacquiao against Provodnikov though, because that’s just not a fight that would promise to do well. Arum would be better off making a deal with WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin for him to come down in weight to junior middleweight to fight Pacquiao at a catch-weight. I think Golovkin would do it for a big payday, and it’s a fight that would do really well both in Russia and in the U.S. Pacquiao would probably get knocked out again, but his PPV numbers would be high in the U.S because Golovkin is quickly becoming a very popular fighter in American thanks to his impressive performances on HBO.
If Arum is going to persist in sticking Pacquiao’s fights in Macao, then he needs to bring someone in with a pulse and with a fan base, because U.S boxing fans aren’t going to want to keep paying to see Pacquiao fight guys coming off of a loss like Rios was. Fans want to see him fight other guys, and Arum is going to kill interest in Pacquiao’s fights if he had him fighting all of his Top Rank stable fighters in a musical chairs style fashion. Pacquiao needs an opponent that actually has a good rep and a potential to beat him. I don’t see Tim Bradley as fitting either of those categories, and nor do I see Provodnikov, his ex-sparring partner as fitting in either. It’s got to be someone that has the potential to knock him out cold like Golovkin to interest fans in the U.S. for a fight in Russia.
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