Arum denies Mayweather-Pacquiao discussions are taking place

By Boxing News - 10/08/2015 - Comments

1-LR_MAYPAC ARRIVAL-TRAPPFOTOS-9717By Chris Williams: Earlier on Thursday, there was a report by AFP that talks were underway between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. for a possible rematch in 2016. The title of an article by AFP was that a rematch with Mayweather was possible for Pacquiao or a fight against Amir Khan.

However, Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum flatly denied that there are any talks between him and Mayweather in an interview with Yahoo News, and he doesn’t understand what Pacquiao said because he knows of nothing about a rematch between the No.1 fighter in boxing Mayweather and Pacquiao.

There are obviously a lot of wishful boxing fans out there that want to see a rematch between Pacquiao and Mayweather, because a segment of the fans believe that Pacquiao was robbed of a decision last May in the Mayweather-Pacquiao. There are also a percentage of the fans who blame Pacquiao’s loss on him having an injured right shoulder.

They think that he would have won the fight if he had come into the fight with his right shoulder at 100 percent. It’s one of those ‘only if’ type things that you see from fans afterwards when they see one of their heroes get beaten. The fans like to play Monday morning quarterback where they second guess everything that happened to help feel better.

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“I have no idea what he’s [Pacquiao] talking about,” Arum said Yahoo Sports. “He said it, not me. But I have had no talks with anyone about that. None. Zero. Not one. Mayweather is retired and I take him at his word. But second, you know there is no way that Mayweather is ever going to fight in the Gulf, even if he did decide to fight again, so it’s all [expletive].”

In fairness to Pacquiao, he actually never mentioned Mayweather’s name at all in the interview with AFP, so it’s hard to understand how Mayweather’s name got mentioned as being in talks with him.

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“I will fight anybody, anywhere. I am going to fight probably before the election,” Pacquiao said to AFP. “The election is coming next year, May, and before that I will probably have one fight.”

By saying that he’ll fight anybody, Pacquiao could have included Mayweather as well, but there’s nothing in the quote that would suggest that Mayweather is in talks with him for a rematch between them next year. Mayweather is happily retired now, and he’s not said anything at all about wanting to return to the ring to resume his boxing career at the present moment. That doesn’t mean he won’t be coming back next year. But for now it’s just not happening.

Pacquiao plans on fighting once more before the elections for the senate position in the Philippines in May of next year. If Pacquiao wins the position, then he could retire. I don’t think Mayweather is going to be coming out of retirement anytime soon to try and fight Pacquiao before the election. Mayweather is too busy enjoying his retirement with all the money he made from his six-fight contract with Showtime/CBS.

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The true candidates for Pacquiao’s next fight is Khan, according to Arum, is the winner of the Tim Bradley vs. Brandon Rios fight, Terence Crawford, and Juan Manuel Marquez. Arum doesn’t seem to mind that Marquez has been giving interviews lately in which he’s said he’s absolutely not interested in fighting Pacquiao a fifth time.

Top Rank president Todd duBoef is traveling to Mexico City, Mexico this weekend to meet with Marquez’s promoter Fernando Beltran to see if Marquez, 42, is willing to take the fight with Pacquiao. I don’t know if duBoef will be able to talk Marque into taking the fight unless they throw a lot of money at him.

Poor Khan, I don’t think he has a realistic shot at getting the Pacquiao fight, and I never did in the first place. I think it’s going to come down to Marquez, Crawford or the winner of the Bradley-Rios fight. One of those guys will get the fight. I think it could be Crawford. I don’t think it will turn Crawford into a star if he wins. Bradley didn’t turn into a star after he beat Pacquiao and neither did Marquez. Both fighters are popular with some boxing fans, but neither of them are PPV fighters in terms of them being the A-side guy.



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