Arum to present Khan fight to Pacquiao to see his reaction

By Boxing News - 08/24/2015 - Comments

khan677By Scott Gilfoid: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum will be meeting with his No.1 money fighter Manny Pacquiao to discuss the possibility Pacquiao fighting Britain’s Amir Khan in Pacquiao’s return fight in February or March of 2016. The 83-year-old Arum has already met with Khan in the UK to talk over the fight, and now he wants to meet with Pacquiao to see what he thinks of facing the 28-year-old Khan.

Pacquiao and Khan previously sparred together when the two of them were both trained by the same trainer Freddie Roach in the past. The two stopped sparring after Khan dumped Roach following his 4th round knockout loss to Danny Garcia in 2012.

“This takes time and I will present everything to Manny and we’ll see what happens,” Arum said via the Manilla Bulletin at mb.com.ph.

Arum can present the fight to Pacquiao, but I think it’s likely going to come down to what Arum wants to do with Pacquiao for his next fight in February or March. The other fighter that is on the list for Pacquiao’s next fight is Arum’s Top Rank stable fighter Terence Crawford.

I would have to guess that Crawford is the one that Arum would really like for Pacquiao to fight next, because Pacquiao’s contract with Top Rank expires at the end of 2016. It’s unknown if Pacquiao will elect to extend the contract, retire or move on to another promoter.

Pacquiao could likely make more money if he simply promoted himself like Floyd Mayweather Jr. does, but with Pacquiao’s contract expiring at end of 2016, I think Arum will likely look to have him fight Crawford next in February or March of 2016, and then try and have Pacquiao fight a rematch with Mayweather in September of 2016.

A rematch between Mayweather and Pacquiao will only work if Pacquiao wins his next fight in February or March. It’ll be a risky thing for Arum to put Pacquiao in with a solid fighter like Crawford next because the chances are high Pacquiao will lose that fight. Yeah, Arum will get the Pacquiao-Crawford fight that he likely wants most of all, but he’ll be tossing away a rematch between Pacquiao and Mayweather in the process with Pacquiao losing to Crawford.

I don’t think it’s worth it for Arum to let Pacquiao fight Crawford at all until he’s exhausted his efforts at getting a rematch between Pacquiao and Mayweather. Once Arum finds out about that, then he should go for the Pacquiao-Crawford fight. In the meantime, Pacquiao-Khan is a nice safe fight for Pacquiao due to Khan’s chin and how awful he looked in his last fight against Chris Algieri.

This would be another Brandon Rios type tune-up fight for Pacquiao, and it would be easy money. If Arum insists on Pacquiao fighting Crawford, then Pacquiao and his adviser Michael Koncz need to say no to that fight and focus on taking on a proper tune-up opponent in Khan rather than Crawford.

You have to remember that Pacquiao is coming off of shoulder surgery to repair a torn right rotator cuff. You don’t go and fight a dangerous guy like Crawford after coming off of a torn rotator cuff injury. That’s just an insane move if Pacquiao agrees to it.

I would never agree to a fight like that. There’s no real money in a Pacquiao-Crawford fight, and all it will do is increase Crawford’s value to Top Rank after he either beats Pacquiao or makes him struggle badly to beat him. Pacquiao vs. Khan would seem like the much better fight for Pacquiao as far money goes and in terms of it being a winnable fight for him.

If Arum wants to match Crawford against someone in his Top Rank stable, then he needs to look to put him in with guys like Diego Chaves, Brandon Rios, Jessie Vargas, Ruslan Provodnikov or Tim Bradley. Those are the fights that Arum should be looking to make next for Crawford, because he’s going to blow it royally if he puts Crawford in with Pacquiao.

Crawford will beat Pacquiao and then there won’t be a rematch between Pacquiao and Mayweather. Pacquiao can make better money for his Top Rank stable fighting other guys rather than Crawford. Arum should exhaust all those fights first before having Pacquiao fight Crawford in a fight that will likely bring in far less than 1 million buys.



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