By Chris Williams: Top Rank plans on keeping their star money maker Manny Pacquiao busy in 2015 by putting him in action in two fights. Pacquiao’s contract ends in 2016, and they’re going to want to have him fight a couple of times next year as well in order to maximize the amount of money he can make.
Pacquiao has said that he would retire in a couple of years, but it’s hard to imagine he’ll step away before he’s 40-years-old. You can expect Pacquiao to re-sign with Top Rank when his contract is up at the end of 2016.
“We’re under contract to have two fights,” Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz said via Philstar.com. “Manny said the fans deserve the Mayweather fight and we’re doing everything that we can possibly do other than say that we can fight for free to make it happen.”
Mayweather would be a great opponent for Pacquiao if Arum can work out a deal. However, after this fight it’s likely going to be back to Arum’s Top Rank stable fighters like Brandon Rios, Mike Alvarado and Jessie Vargas. This is Pacquiao and Arum’s one chance for him to fight a top level opponent with a name before it’s back to the less popular guys that Pacquiao has been fighting for the past five years.
Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach was talking about wanting him to fight Mayweather three times in a trilogy affair. Roach must know how bleak things could get for the 36-year-old Pacquiao once the Mayweather fight is out of the way.
Going from Mayweather back to the likes of Rios, Vargas and Alvarado would be a huge drop off. The problem is that the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight will likely be a one-sided affair in the same class as the Mayweather vs. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez fight, and it’ll be a hard sell to try and get the two guys back in the ring with each other.
Yes, a lot of boxing fans would still likely pay to see them fight again, but I’m not sure that Arum will want to let Pacquiao fight Mayweather a second and third time if it’s going to result in Pacquiao losing the fights.
You’ve got figure that Pacquiao’s pay-per-view numbers will drop off with a loss to Mayweather. I doubt Mayweather will want to let Pacquiao lose his marketability with additional defeats. Things are already not going well anyway in terms of the deteriorating PPV numbers Pacquiao has been experiencing in his last three fights.
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