Arum: I’m confident I can make the fight [Pacquiao-Marquez 5]

By Boxing News - 05/18/2014 - Comments

marquez7776676By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum was quite pleased with the results of last night’s fight between Juan Manuel Marquez (56-7-1, 40 KO’s) and Mike Alvarado (34-3, 23 KO’s), because Arum now has the much more popular Marquez as the winner for a possible 5th fight against Arum’s No.1 fighter in his Top Rank stable Manny Pacquiao for later this year. Arum is now waiting for the word from Marquez whether he’ll agree to take the fight with Pacquiao, and Arum feels very confident he can put the fight together if he gives him the green light.

Marquez would really sink Arum’s battleship if he were to turn around and say ‘No thanks’ to the idea of him fighting Pacquiao a 5th time. Arum doesn’t have a lot of other options for Pacquiao to fight for his next fight for later this year. Unless Marquez says yes to the rematch, Arum’s only hope for an interesting fight for Pacquiao is if Oscar De La Hoya can make a fight happen between his Golden Boy Promotions company and Top Rank.

De La Hoya has plenty of good fighters for Pacquiao to fight, and there wouldn’t be the need for Pacquiao to be put back in with the likes of Tim Bradley or Brandon Rios. If Marquez says no, we’re probably looking at Pacquiao against Rios or Bradley. The only other options is for Arum to match Pacquiao up against some of his smaller fighters like Jessie Vargas, Terence Crawford, Mikey Garcia or Raymundo Beltran.

“Marquez said he would go back and consult with his team and analyze the fifth fight,” Arum said via Dan Rafael of ESPN. “That’s a pretty good statement. I’m fairly confident I’ll make it. Manny wants the fight. So it’s going to be up to Marquez. It really is. I think there’s a lot of money in that fight. And this was a great fight tonight. Mike has the guts of a lion. He stayed in there, he hurt Marquez pretty good but Marquez is Marquez. Marquez is a great fighter.”

Pacquiao obviously wants the Marquez fight because it’s a chance to avenge his loss to him from 2012. Also, a fight against Marquez will bring Pacquiao a likely bigger payday than what he’d get if he were to face one of Arum’s other fighters. I don’t think the boxing public could stomach another Pacquiao vs. Bradley or Rios fight, and the PPV buys for those fights would likely be in the 400,000 range.



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