By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum believes there’s a good chance that his fighter Manny Pacquiao (58-6-2, 38 KOs) will be facing Floyd Mayweather Jr. (49-0, 26 KOs) in a rematch in the near future.
Arum, 84, says that Showtime is interested in the Mayweather-Pacquiao 2 rematch, and all it’ll take is for one of the fighters to say they want the fight in order for it to happen. Arum is saying there’s a very good chance the fight will take place. Right now though, both fighters are said to be retired.
Pacquiao just retired after beating Tim Bradley last Saturday night by a 12 round unanimous decision in their third fight on HBO PPV. As for Mayweather, he retired after beating Andre Berto by a 12 round unanimous decision last September. Mayweather’s stance since then is he’s not interested in making a comeback at this time. However, Mayweather isn’t ready to rule out a return to the sport at some point if he sees a fight that interests him.
“It’s close to 50/50 but probably leaning more toward the fight happening … more likely than not,” said Arum to TMZ.com. “It’s close to 50/50 but probably leaning more toward the fight happening … more likely than not.”
Arum needs to get on the phone and try and convince Mayweather that it’s worthwhile fighting Pacquiao again, because without Mayweather showing interest in the fight, it’s not going to happen. Pacquiao would probably take the fight in a second if it’s offered to him, but Mayweather is the A-side here. He’s the one that is calling the shots. Pacquiao just got $20 million for the Tim Bradley fight, at least that’s what we’re told. Who knows? It might have been a lesser number.
I can’t see how the Pacquiao-Bradley 3 fight generated enough money to cover the $20 million that Pacquiao was guaranteed and the $4 million that Bradley was guaranteed. But if Pacquiao fights Mayweather, he’ll get a ton of money, even if the fight only brings in roughly half the amount of PPV buys as their fight last May.
“If the match was available, I believe [Manny] would come back for that match,” said Arum. says, “If either man agrees to fight, my feeling is that they won’t be able to resist.”
It’s not enough that Pacquiao agrees that he wants the rematch with Mayweather, because he’s been open to a rematch ever since he was beaten by him. It’s Mayweather who has to decide whether he wants the fight.
If Pacquiao gets elected into the senate in the May elections in the Philippines, then it’s probably not going to be possible for him to take two to three months off from his job so that he can train for the fight. I’m sure that the senators in the Philippines are given vacations from their work, but I doubt they get three month vacations.
Pacquiao is about to lock himself into a six-year commitment in becoming a senator. That’s a huge sacrifice. I don’t think he’s going to be able to find the time to continue his boxing career if he gets elected, whether Mayweather shows interest or not in a second fight.
If Pacquiao is going to return to the ring, a fight against Mayweather might be the best way for Arum to lure him back. If Arum tries to entice Pacquiao to come back by offering him fights against his Top Rank stable fighters Terence Crawford, Jessie Vargas and Tim Bradley [for a fourth fight], I don’t think it’s going to happen.
Arum missed the chance to stick Crawford or Vargas in with Pacquiao for last Saturday’s fight, and I think Pacquiao has pretty much lost interest in fighting. Without Mayweather, there’s no one that is interesting enough to bring Pacquiao back. If the 84-year-old Arum proves to be a little slow in realizing that, then he’ll go nowhere if/when he tries to get Pacquiao to come out of retirement in order to fight his Top Rank stable guys.
I think it’s pretty obvious at this point that Pacquiao has zero interest in fighting Arum’s guys. He’s been fighting rematches against various Top Rank fighters for the last 12 years, and I think he’s done with that. We’ve seen Pacquiao in tons of rematches against Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera, Juan Manuel Marquez and Tim Bradley. I think the only fight Pacquiao will come back for is Mayweather, and I don’t see that fight happening.
Comments are closed.