By Allan Fox: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says he should know who Manny Pacquiao will be fighting next for his April 9th fight by next month in mid-November. Arum has narrowed it down to three fighters – Terence Crawford, Amir Khan and Tim Bradley – for that date, but Crawford is the one that he personally is talking about constantly.
It’s a decision that ultimately rests with Pacquiao in how he’ll be fighting. His adviser Michael Koncz says that Crawford isn’t the top of their list, which runs counter to what Arum is saying right now about Crawford being the top of his own personal list.
It looks like if Arum gets his way, Pacquiao will be fighting Crawford rather than the likely bigger money options against Khan or Bradley. In terms of money, Khan is easily the biggest money fight for Pacquiao unless Floyd Mayweather Jr. comes back or if Juan Manuel Marquez changes his mind about not wanting to fight him again.
Bradley is the next biggest money fight, and Crawford is far behind the others in last place. A Pacquiao-Crawford fight would have to be seen as another Pacquiao vs. Chris Algieri fight, and maybe even worse because Crawford isn’t popular in the East Coast the way that Algieri was.
“We’ll know by mid-November who Manny is going to fight next,” Arum said to mb.com.ph.
If Pacquiao wants to cave in and face the guy that Arum wants him to fight, then we’ll see him fighting Crawford in his last fight. Arum obviously knows that a Pacquiao-Crawford fight wouldn’t make very much money, but it gives Arum a chance of Crawford becoming more popular if he defeats Pacquiao or if he looks good in losing.
The fight won’t have the Midas touch for Crawford’s career in the same way that an Oscar De La Hoya fight had a Midas touch for Pacquiao’s career in turning him into a PPV star overnight. Pacquiao was already on his way to becoming a huge star even before he fought De La Hoya in 2008. All that fight did was quicken the pace.
Crawford isn’t that kind of a fighter. He’s more of a Lamont Peterson type of guy in my estimation. A guy that is popular to some fans, but not quite the cup of team that other boxing fans are looking for in order for them to become fans of his.
Crawford would need to become a crossover star for him to become popular, and I don’t think he has the right fighting style to attract the huge Mexican fan base in the United States. He doesn’t brawl enough, and there are too many slow periods of little action in his fights. But more than that, Crawford doesn’t fight enough high quality fighters. He’s been fighting guys like Raymundo Beltran, Dierry Jean and Thomas Dulorme instead of the better fighters.
Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach seems to think there’s a chance that Floyd Mayweather Jr. could come back and potentially face Pacquiao in a rematch next year.
“I’ve been hearing a lot of things (about a rematch taking place),” Roach said to mb.com.ph. “Well, those are just rumors, but.”
I don’t think Mayweather is going to come back next year. He made too much money from his fights in 2015, and I think he’s going to go on a spending spree in 2016. If anything, we could see Mayweather return to the ring in 2017 if he puts a serious dent in his bankroll. If he blows more than $40 million in 2016 on knickknacks, then he’s going to need to fight at some point if he doesn’t want to blow his entire fortune within five years.
You can’t spend huge amounts of money per year without your fortune being whittled down in a hurry unless you’ve got a lot of money coming in to replace the money that you spend. The best way for Mayweather to replace all the money that he blows on cars and other stuff that depreciates quickly is for him to get back inside the ring and face Pacquiao before he hangs up his gloves.
I don’t think Mayweather is that smart. I don’t believe that he sees a future of him having blown through his entire fortune, which is why I see him passing up a $100 million fight against Pacquiao in 2016.
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