Is the Pacquiao-Arum relationship disintegrating?

By Boxing News - 07/20/2015 - Comments

pacmay2 (6)By Allan Fox: Manny Pacquiao recently chose not to come to the U.S on July 18th to meet with his surgeon to have his surgically repaired right shoulder examined. The surgeon was going to give Pacquiao a treatment plan for him to follow for him to begin rehabilitation for his shoulder, which he suffered a torn rotator cuff last May in his “Fight of the Century” bout against superstar Floyd Mayweather Jr. at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Instead of coming down for the July 18th meeting with the doctor, Pacquiao stayed at home in the Philippines. His adviser Michael Koncz said that he’ll be coming over to the U.S at the end of July.

It shouldn’t have been a big deal because we’re only talking about less than two weeks between the originally scheduled meeting and when Pacquiao would eventually be coming down. However, Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum reportedly make some comments about Pacquiao’s decision not to come down to the U.S on July 18th, and it’s unclear if the two are seeing things eye to eye at this point.

“You got an operation like that, you got to do rehab, you got to get the doctor to look at it and guide you on the kind of rehab that you can do,” Arum said via the New Standard/boxingmirror.com. [Pacquiao had] “Promised me he was leaving for the US this weekend (July 18) which he’s not. [It is] “A serious operation. He’s a professional athlete. It don’t know what to say. To me it’s totally irresponsible.”

What you have to wonder about is why Arum would choose to make these comments in public rather than keeping things on the down low. As Leo Reyes of Digital Journal quite rightly points out, Arum “could have kept his emotion under control if he had just phoned Pacquiao to find out why he failed to see his doctor on schedule rather than telling the media about Pacquiao’s unprofessional action.” Is this the start of the breakdown between Arum and Pacquiao? It’s unknown. Pacquiao is under contract with Arum’s Top Rank promotional company until the end of 2016, and it’s unclear if the contract will be extended at that time to make up for Pacquiao’s missed fights due to his shoulder injury. Pacquiao will miss at least one fight in 2015, and possibly another in 2016 if his shoulder isn’t healed enough for him to fight in the first half of 2016. Arum has been quite open about wanting to have Pacquiao potentially fight one of his rising stars in Terence Crawford next year. That’s a fight that would potentially help Arum more than it would Pacquiao.

It is pretty important for Pacquiao to be starting his rehab as soon as possible if he wants to resume his boxing career and get back to the level where he was before. You can perfectly understand why Arum would be concerned with Pacquiao’s decision to delay his meeting with doctor to have his shoulder examined. But we also don’t know what’s going on with Pacquiao’s life right now for him not to be able to come down to the U.S right now.

Pacquiao usually has a full plate of responsibilities given that he’s a politician, and his life is very complicated. Having the injury makes things even more difficult for him because he’s got to get around and meet with a lot of people. However, if we’re only talking a delay of two weeks from the original date that Pacquiao was supposed to meet with his doctor, then it shouldn’t be a big deal. Pacquiao’s shoulder will still be fine if he starts his training rehab a little later rather than the time that his doctor wanted him to.



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