Arum wants Pacquiao-Mayweather and Pacquiao-Marquez 5 in 2015

By Boxing News - 08/26/2014 - Comments

arum0By Chris Williams: WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KOs) hasn’t even gotten past the tough as nails Chris Algieri (20-0, 8 KOs) for their fight scheduled on November 22nd, and already Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum is talking about the next fight he wants to match Pacquiao against after that one.

Arum specifically wants to put a fifth fight together between Pacquiao and 40-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez. Arum previously had hoped to put the Pacquiao-Marquez 5 fight together for November, but they couldn’t get Marquez to agree to take the fight.

There are all kinds of talk about why the fight didn’t take place, but it probably came down to money. In addition to Marquez, Arum also wants Pacquiao to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr in 2015. What a year that would be for Pacquiao if he were to fight Marquez and Mayweather.

The Marquez-Pacquiao fight has obviously been played out to the extreme, and I would be surprised if gets anywhere close to 1 million PPV buys. But obviously a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight would be a good one, even with Pacquiao no looking as good as he used to back in 2009, when he was at the zenith of his career.

“Hopefully we can put Marquez in with Pacquiao next year,” said Arum said via Skysports.com.

Arum talking up a fifth fight against Marquez at a time that Pacquiao is fighting Algieri. Arum is also talking up a fight between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. The timing of mentioning those two fighters’ names could help create more interest in the Pacquiao-Algieri fight.

“With Showtime and HBO wanting the fight [Mayweather vs. Pacquiao] and Manny wanting the fight, there is one little step to take and that’s to see where Floyd stands,” Arum said.

I doubt that Arum will be able to get either of those two fighters to face Pacquiao in 2015. Marquez has already arguably beaten Pacquiao four times, and he’s been pretty clear that he wants to be paid well for a 5th fight. Even then, Marquez might not take the fight because he has nothing to prove anymore because of his past fights with Pacquiao.

A fight between Mayeather and Pacquiao could take place if Mayweather feels giving fans what they want, but it would still depend on the negotiations for the fight and how good Pacquiao does against Algieri on November 22nd. Mayweather would obviously be looking to be the A-side in negotiations for a fight against Pacquiao.

The 50-50 business wouldn’t work if Pacquiao, Arum and trainer Freddie Roach started negotiations from that angle. Mayweather is going to want to get the lion’s share of the cash for the fight, and if Pacquiao and Arum can’t agree to that then the fight won’t happen.



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