By Dan Ambrose: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says that he’s being told by the therapists for his fighter former eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao that he could be back before the end of 2015. Pacquiao is currently rehabbing his surgically repaired right rotator cuff, and he’s doing well with rehab therapy.
It was originally thought that Pacquiao wouldn’t be able to come back until sometime in 2016 if at all, but Arum now thinks that it’s possible we could see Pacquiao back in 2015. Arum’s not saying who he’ll be matching against Pacquiao in his first fight back, but he does like the idea of eventually putting him in with WBO light welterweight champion Terence Crawford, who Arum has in his Top Rank stable.
“He [Pacquiao] sent us a video and the therapists are stunned at his progress. They said he could be back at the end of this year,” Arum said via thaboxingvoice.com.
Pacquiao injured his rotator cuff in his fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. last May. Pacquiao actually aggravated a preexisting injury that he already had in his shoulder. He made a bad injury worse by taking the fight instead of resting the injury or having surgery.
It’s unclear who Arum plans on matching Pacquiao against for his next fight. If Pacquiao does come back before the end of the year in December, it would be only seven months between his surgery and him fighting.
That would seem to be a rush job in bringing Pacquiao back that soon, but we don’t know how bad the injury was and how extensive the surgery. If it was just simple surgery to repair a small tear, then it wouldn’t be a big deal if Pacquiao comes back in 2015. But it would still be a risky thing if Arum chooses to match Pacquiao tough by putting him in with one of his Top Rank stable fighters like Crawford.
Arum doesn’t really have a lot of options for Pacquiao in his Top Rank stable. Unless he wants to put Pacquiao in with guys like Brandon Rios or Tim Bradley again, Arum’s only real option is to try and convince Pacquiao to fight Crawford next.
It’s a tough fight for Pacquiao to take coming off of a bad injury like a torn rotator cuff. But if he’s going to insist on the fight being on pay per view, which obviously will be the case, then Arum will need to match Pacquiao against someone that the fans will actually be interested in seeing him fight.
When asked if he was interested in matching Pacquiao against Crawford, Arum said “Yes.”
It’s important that Arum match Pacquiao against Crawford as soon as possible so that Pacquiao can give him his Midas touch before he retires from the sport.
If Pacquiao retires without fighting Crawford, then it’s going to make it tough for Crawford to become a future PPV star. It’s already going to be tough for Crawford to make the leap to pay-per-view because he doesn’t have anything really special about him in terms of his hand speed or his ability to KO fighters. He’s not a knockout artist like Gennady Golovkin, and he’s fighter that throws sustained combinations with blinding speed like Pacquiao.
Crawford doesn’t have Mayweather’s hand speed, defensive skills, reflexes or charisma. Crawford is just a counter puncher with good defensive skills. That’s why Arum has to match Crawford against Pacquiao and hope that the fans will like him enough to want to become fans of his.
Pacquiuao can’t afford to lose his next fight by facing someone like Crawford because it would wreck any chances of him getting a rematch against Mayweather. The chances of a rematch are already low given Top Rank’s lawsuit with Mayweather’s adviser Al Haymon. But if Arum chooses to put Pacquiao in a risky fight against Crawford next, he could finish off whatever chances there are for a Mayweather rematch if Pacquiao loses to Crawford.
Comments are closed.