By Tim Fletcher: While Manny Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum is talking up a fight between Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) and Top Rank promoted Terence Crawford (27-0, 19 KOs), Pacquiao is saying that he still has his eyes on a rematch with boxing’s No.1 superstar Floyd Mayweather Jr. (49-0, 26 KOs) next year.
That’s the fight that Pacquiao wants. Arum seems to have other ideas though. He really, really wants Pacquiao to fight Crawford on April 9th in Pacquiao’s final fight of his career. Pacquiao has a good reason for wanting a rematch with Mayweather though.
Pacquiao lost to him by a 12 round unanimous decision last May in a fight where he Pacquiao had to deal with a bad shoulder injury. A lot of fans don’t believe that the shoulder injury was real, and many of the ones that do believe it was a legitimate injury don’t think it had anything to do with him losing to Mayweather.
If Pacquiao could get a second fight against Mayweather, he’d have the opportunity to prove that the injury really was the favor in keeping him from winning last May. Besides that, the money that Pacquiao would get for a second Mayweather fight would dwarf the money he can make for a fight against Arum’s preferred opponent Terence Crawford.
“I don’t know yet who my opponent is next but we’re still negotiating right now about the rematch with Floyd Mayweather so hoping for that,” Pacquiao said via Fighthype.com.
Pacquiao’s best option for his final fight is Mayweather followed by Amir Khan and Danny Garcia. Arum recently said that he doesn’t want to make the fight between Pacquiao and Garcia. But if it’s really Pacquiao’s call who he fights rather than Arum, then he can always be assertive and insist that the fight with Garcia or Khan gets made.
Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe said on Monday that Mayweather is retired, period. End of story. Ellerbe gave no hint of Mayweather coming back to resume his career, but he’s also not the one who makes the decisions. If Mayweather decides that he wants to come back and face Pacquiao again, then he’ll be the one who makes the decision. He doesn’t have a promoter who tells him what to do and who to fight.
As for the Pacquiao-Mayweather rematch, Pacquiao might want to somehow accidentally bump into him at one of the sporting events that Mayweather frequents. That’s how Pacquiao got the fight with Mayweather last May. The two of them crossed paths at a Miami Heat basketball game, and from there the two of them got talking about a fight with one another.
Pacquiao still has Mayweather’s phone number unless he changed it. It would be wise if Pacquiao made the call personally to Mayweather to try and put the fight together. If Pacquiao leaves it up to Arum to try and make the fight, it’s quite possible that the fight won’t get made. I don’t think Mayweather will want to deal with Arum, and it might be a bad idea for the aging promoter to call him.
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