By Chris Williams: With so much money at stake for Top Rank with each fight Manny Pacquiao takes, it would be crazy if Top Rank promoter Bob Arum were to allow Pacquiao to get away this early at only 37-years-old and still raking in huge green cash. I’m just saying.
There’s still much of that black gold that Pacquiao is making with each of his fights for him to retire now with the money still rolling in with each and every fight. It’s hard to imagine Arum letting Pacquiao retire when he can still make big money.
What’s also important is Pacquiao still hasn’t fought some of Arum’s other Top Rank stable fighters in order to turn them into a star the way Oscar De La Hoya turned Pacquiao into a PPV attraction by being a stepping stone.
Pacquiao still needs to fight some of Arum’s stable fighters like Terence Crawford and lightweight Felix Verdejo. Those are probably the most important fighters in Arum’s stable right now once you exclude Pacquiao. Super middleweight Gilberto Ramirez is also important, but it’s unknown whether he’ll ever be the star that Crawford and Verdejo will be.
Just last May, Pacquiao was involved in the largest pay-per-view fight in the history of the sport with his fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr., which brought in over 4.3 million pay-per-view buys. The fight was so important to Pacquiao that he took with an injured shoulder and subsequently had one of his worst performances in recent memory.
Pacquiao is talking about retiring after his April 9 fight against WBO 147lb belt holder Tim Bradley (33-1-1, 12 KOs), because Pacquiao says he wants to go off into politics. However, politics is a life of leisure for many of the politicians and it’s hard to imagine Pacquiao being worked hard in the Philippines if he wins the senate seat he so badly covets.
Politicians always need money to keep their careers afloat and what better way for Pacquiao to keep that good clean cash coming in other than to continue his boxing career for another 3 to 5 years, or at least until his pay-per-view buys drop off to below 200,000. When Pacquiao is no longer getting huge guarantees for each fight, then I think he should think about retiring.
Pacquiao will need to get his surgically repaired shoulder checked out by medical doctors for him to get clearance to start training for his fight against Bradley. Pacquiao tore his right rotator cuff in his last fight against Mayweather, and that’s one of the worst injuries an athlete can suffer. It’s hard to imagine a fighter going straight into a difficult fight like Pacquiao is without a tune-up after suffering a torn rotator cuff.
I respect Pacquiao for doing what he’s doing, but I think it’s stupid. No way would I ever agree to take a tough fight if I tore my rotator cuff. Could you imagine a baseball pitcher giving the green light to go out on the mound and pitch a 9 inning game in his first game back from having shoulder surgery. That’s just so risky. I can’t believe Pacquiao is doing it.
“it will be up to Manila to decide where he will spend the early part of his training camp,” said Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz to the mb.com.ph. “Regardless of where we are going, there’d be people coming to visit but in General Santos City, we will have control,” said Koncz.
It’s thought by some boxing fans that the reason why Pacquiao is picking the Philippines for the first half of his training camp is because it will help him campaign for his senate seat. The election is in May. By being in the Philippines for at least half of his training camp for the Bradley fight, it could Pacquiao a chance to be available to the media for photo ops.
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