By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says the Cinco de Mayo holiday on May 2nd next year should be for Saul “Canelo” Alvarez to fight. Arum points out that Canelo is Mexican and it’s a Mexican holiday.
The thing is Floyd Mayweather Jr recently came out last Friday saying that he’s interested in fighting Arum’s top money fighter Manny Pacquiao on the Mexican holiday on May 2nd. However, Arum wants that fight for Canelo, even though he’s not one of his Top Rank stable fighters.
Obviously a fight between Canelo and Arum’s fighter Miguel Cotto would bring in huge numbers if they stage it on Cinco de Mayo, and Arum wants that fight to take place.
By pushing for the Canelo-Cotto fight for Cinco de Mayo instead of a fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao, Arum could be unwittingly sabotaging himself. He’ll get the Cotto-Canelo fight, but if Arun angers Mayweather, then he’ll end up not getting the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, which is a much bigger fight on paper than the Canelo vs. Cotto match-up.
“Neither Mr. Mayweather, nor Mr. Pacquiao, nor Mr. Cotto is Mexican. Cotto is Hispanic, but not Mexican,” Arum said to RingTV.com “The only Mexican in the group is Canelo Alvarez, who is a big attraction among the Mexican people.”
You have to wonder whether Arum would be so concerned about Canelo getting the Cinco de Mayo date if he weren’t planning on fighting one of his Top Rank fighters. Would Arum care about Canelo fighting on Cinco de Mayo if he were facing one of Golden Boy Promotions fighters? If it wasn’t a situation where Top Rank would ultimately do well with Canelo fighting Cotto, would Arum care about whether Canelo fights on Cinco de Mayo or not?
Arum needs to be careful because by pushing for Canelo to fight on Cinco de Mayo rather than Mayweather, he could wind up losing the bigger fight. The Canelo-Cotto fight will bring in likely no more than a little over 1 million pay-per-view buys. In comparison, the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight will easily top 2 million pay-per-view buys. You’d hate to see the 83-year-old Arum missing out on the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight due to him saying that Canelo should fight on Cinco de Mayo instead of Mayweather and Pacquiao.
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