By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is already thinking about putting his Filipino star Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KO’s) back in Macao, China despite the fact that his previous fight over there against Brandon Rios did poorly in terms of pay-per-view numbers last year.
The numbers were such a huge drop off from Pacquiao’s previous fight against Juan Manuel Marquez that Arum went ahead and brought Pacquiao back to the United States for an ill advised rematch against Tim Bradley last April. That fight also failed to bring in the big numbers that Pacquiao was once accustomed to, so now Arum is looking to bring him back to Macao.
“Macao wants Manny to fight there [again].” Arum said.
I’m sure Marquez might have something to say about Arum sticking a potential fifth fight between him and Pacquiao in China. I don’t see how that move benefits Marquez if he’s going to have few of his own fans over there. Also, if it’s true about fights out of the country bringing in less PPV money, then the last thing Marquez needs is to fight in Macao in front of a pro-Pacquiao audience and end up with far fewer PPV buys.
Arum may end up sorry if he chooses to stick Pacquiao’s next fight over there, and I can already picture Arum trying to explain away the low PPV numbers that will likely result in him staging another Pacquiao over there.
Arum is interested in opening up China for pay-per-view fights, and one of the way’s going about attempting to accomplish this is to stage Pacquiao’s fights over there. It’s doubtful that Pacquiao’s next fight will be PPV in China, and it’s hard to say when Arum will be able to monetize his fights from there. But it doesn’t make a lot of sense for Pacquiao to fight over there if his PPV numbers nose downwards each time he fights there. Unless the Macao Casino is going to make up the difference in lost revenue by him fighting there, it doesn’t make much sense for him to fight there.
Pacquiao needs to think clearly before he agrees to another fight in Macao or anywhere outside of the U.S. If America is where Pacquiao is generating his money from PPV, then it makes sense for him to be fighting there rather than taking risky fights outside of the country that may result in less PPV buys. If it were me that was potentially risking a smaller payday by fighting outside of the U.S, I wouldn’t do it. I’d say no to Arum, and suggest he find someone else to be his guy that helps open up the Chinese markets. Who knows how long it could take to open China up for PPV? It might not happen before Pacquiao retire. And if he’s fighting over there and winding up with fewer PPV buys each time, he won’t be around to enjoy the market being open at some point in the future, if Arum ever does open up the market.
Comments are closed.