Arum: Adrien Broner a possibility for Pacquiao

By Boxing News - 06/24/2016 - Comments

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By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says former four division world champion Adrien “The Problem” Broner (32-2, 24 KOs) is one of the possibilities for his fighter Manny Pacquiao (58-6-2, 38 KOs) if the 37-year-old Filipino fighter chooses return to the ring in the near future.

Right now, however, Arum isn’t sure whether he’ll come out of retirement, according to Lance Pugmire of the LA Times.

Pacquiao retired recently after his 12 round decision in his third fight against Tim Bradley last April. Pacquiao was elected into the senate in the Philippines last May, and he’s now serving a six-year term in office.

The job is said to be very demanding in terms of time, and it’s unknown whether Pacquiao will be able to free himself up from his daily responsibilities to training for eight weeks for a fight against someone like Broner.

“Arum says Adrien Broner is ‘one of the guys’ he’d consider for a Manny Pacquiao return, but unsure if Pac is coming back,” said Pugmire on his Twitter.

It’s more likely that Arum would want to try and match Pacquiao against the likes of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez or Floyd Mayweather Jr. rather than Broner. The Canelo fight would be a much bigger fight for Pacquiao than a match against Broner, who has twice been beaten in his career by Shawn Porter in 2015 and Marcos Maidana in 2013.

Pacquiao-Broner doesn’t sell like a Pacquiao vs. Canelo fight. Broner is with Al Haymon, and that might make it difficult for Arum to put the fight together between him and Pacquiao. Canelo is with Golden Boy Promotions, and Arum would likely find it easier to work with them in putting together a fight if they could agree on a catch-weight and/or a rehydration limit.

It would be a crazy move for Pacquiao to face Canelo without some kind of rehydration limit to keep the 25-year-old Mexican fighter from ballooning up to 175 to 180, and coming into the ring with a 30 pound weight advantage. Pacquiao fights in the upper 140s, and he would have a tough time dealing with a guy that is near or at 180.

Canelo should really be fighting at super middleweight rather than melting down to 154 or 155 for his fights. He’s got to be going through pure agony in taking all that weight off to melt off 20+ pounds for his fights.

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Asking Pacquiao to fight Canelo would be the equivalent of asking him to fight middleweight Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, because Canelo is the same size as him in terms of weight. Pacquiao would be wiped out by Golovkin due to his big size and weight advantage.

Arum didn’t say what the other options for Pacquiao are, but it wouldn’t be surprising if he wanted him to fight either Terence Crawford or Vasyl Lomachenko. Arum promotes both of those fighters, so it would help his bottom line if Pacquiao were to agree to fight one of them rather than facing a non-Top Rank fighter.

Many of Pacquiao’s fights in the last five years of his career have been against Arum’s fighters, including his last one against Tim Bradley. If Pacquiao is smart, he won’t come back to the sport unless he has the chance to fight Mayweather or Canelo.

Broner is being mentioned as an opponent for WBC welterweight champion Danny “Swift” Garcia in 2016. Both guys are managed by Al Haymon, and you have to figure that he would prefer to control both of these chess pieces rather than just one chess piece if he had to deal with Arum. Garcia needs an opponent besides the aging Andre Berto, and Broner gives Haymon that extra body to toss into the ring with Garcia.

Arum, if nothing else, is incredibly predictable in the kinds of match-making he does with Pacquiao and his other fighters. I think it would be a miracle if Pacquiao doesn’t wind up fighting one of Arum’s Top Rank stable fighters if he does come back. This would be Arum’s last chance to have Pacquiao use his Midas gold touch to turn Arum’s fighters Lomachenko or Crawford into stars before Pacquiao retires for good. Arum thinks those two fighters are going to ebcome huge stars in the future. They just need that one scalp to turn them into stars. Pacquiao would be the old lion that would be the stepping stone for one or both of them.