Pacquiao’s lawyer thinks Arum should free Manny for Mayweather mega-bout

By Boxing News - 01/05/2014 - Comments

arum33By Chris Williams: Franklin Gacal Jr., Manny Pacquiao’s lawyer, feels that Top Rank promoter Bob Arum should free Pacquiao from his contract in order for him to get the biggest fight – and payday – of his career against Floyd Mayweather Jr. Arum has Pacquiao under contract until December with Top Rank, and Mayweather said last month that he will never agree to fight Pacquiao until he’s no longer promoted by Bob Arum.

If Arum were to release Pacquiao one fight early after his April 12th fight, then he would be free to fight Mayweather Jr. in September.

“History is waiting and Bob should free Manny,” Gacal said to the Asiancorrespondent. “That would be Bob’s greatest contribution to boxing history. Manny should be a freelancer for that fight to happen.”

I agree with Gacal. That would be a good thing for Arum to do, especially given all the years of loyalty and the money Pacquiao has made him. By letting Pacquiao go to get the biggest fight and payday of his career, Arum would be giving Pacquiao a real gift. However, I don’t think he’s going to release Pacquiao early. In Arum’s comments earlier today to RingTV, he said Pacquiao is under contract with Top Rank and that he could sign through 2015. If Pacquiao does this, he’s not going to get the Mayweather fight or any of the other big fights that he can’t get due to him being with Top Rank. He’d be kind of limited to the guys that Arum can match him with.

In the best possible world, Arum would release Pacquiao early from his contract so that he could make huge paydays against Mayweather or whoever he wanted. But I doubt Arum is going to do that. Pacquiao is Arum’s No.1 fighter in his Top Rank stable, and he’ll probably continue to be his top fighter even after he’s totally shot and unable to beat the better fighters in the 147 lb. division. Arum doesn’t have anyone in his stable that can bring in the kind of pay-per-view cash that Pacquiao can.

There’s just nobody there for Arum that can make up what he’d be losing if he let his main PPV fighter go. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. isn’t the guy and neither Mikey Garcia. It’s pretty much just Pacquiao for Arum, and I have a feeling he’s going to be with him until the bitter end. Look at some of the guys in Arum’s stable – Brandon Rios, Mike Alvarado, Tim Bradley, Terence Crawford, Mikey Garcia and Ruslan Provodnikov. These aren’t PPV fighters, and they probably never will be.

If Pacquiao wanted to leave Arum all he’d have to do is give the marching orders to his adviser Michael Koncz once his contract with Arum is up in December, and he likely wouldn’t even have to meet with him in public. But I have a feeling that Pacquiao would give in every time and re-sign with Arum if they have one-on-one meetings.

What we’re looking at for Pacquiao for 2014 is Tim Bradley and Ruslan Provodnikov. Good fights, yeah, but not huge fights. Those are fights that will probably bring in 475,000 to 800,000 PPV buys at best. I think both fights will be around 500,000. But if Pacquiao could fight Mayweather in September, we’re talking over 2 million buys. A rematch would generate a ton as well.



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