By Chris Williams: The 37-year-old Manny Pacquiao (58-6-2, 38 KOs) wants to return to the sport of boxing, says his trainer Bob Arum of Top Rank. In a bold move, Arum has already booked the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 15 for Pacquiao in case he chooses to come out of retirement. This would be a PPV fight like all of Pacquiao’s other fights in the last eight years of his career.
Pacquiao retired earlier this year after his third fight against Tim Bradley. That wasn’t a fight that was in demand from the sport, and Arum clearly blew it by choosing to match Pacquiao and Bradley again rather than bringing in new blood for Pacquiao to fight. Pacquiao is now working as a senator in the Philippines, and the job is said to be a difficult one that requires a great deal of time on a daily basis.
There was news that came out recently about Arum wanting to match Pacquiao against former four division world champion Adrien Broner. However, Arum has since cleared up the rumor by saying that Broner is just one of several fighters that he would like to put in with Pacquiao. One of the others is Terence Crawford, a fighter that Arum promotes and has openly been very, very interested in matching against Pacquiao.
If Pacquiao is going to fight again, it’s probably a slam dunk that it’ll be Crawford. You can pretty much forget all about Broner’s name, because I see it as just filler to give the appearance of there being other options for Pacquiao besides the Top Rank promoted Crawford.
“I’m not sure Manny is going to return, but I believe he wants to return,” Arum said to Yahoo Sports. “The question is, can he return and yet fulfill his duties as a senator in the Philippines? I don’t think even he knows that answer yet, because he’s just taken office. But I know for a fact, based on our conversations, that if he can, he is prepared to come back, and Broner is one guy we’re considering.”
I wonder if Arum is going to automatically set aside dates and book venues for Pacquiao far into the future, hoping that he will eventually come back for one more fight. I think it’s a waste of time for Arum, because I think it’s time to let go and let Pacquiao focus on his new career rather than pining away for a comeback from him.
It’s too bad Arum make the most of Pacquiao’s last fight in April of this year, because I think that was a real waste of an opportunity for him. If Arum wanted to put him in with Broner, and I don’t think for a second he ever considered that fight, then the time to do it would have been last April.
We saw what the choices were for Pacquiao. He made his selection from Crawford, Bradley and Amir Khan. Arum promotes both Bradley and Crawford, so it wasn’t surprising that the non-Top Rank promoted Khan didn’t get the fight, even though it likely would have resulted in more PPV buys that a tired third fight between Pacquiao and Bradley. I think that was a stale move that Arum made in putting on that fight.
At this point, I don’t think Pacquiao is going to ever come back, because he’s got a really tough job, and I think he knows that if he does come back, Arum will likely want him to fight Crawford, especially if he’s only coming back for one last fight. Unfortunately, I don’t think Pacquiao is all that excited about fighting Crawford, and I doubt that he’s even remotely interested in fighting Broner. We’ve already seen Broner exposed a couple of times in his career in losses to Marcos Maidana and Shawn Porter. Broner looks bad even when he’s winning. Why would Pacquiao want to fight him? There’s no upside in him facing Broner other than to try and beat him easier than Maidana and Porter did. If Pacquiao were to fight Crawford, he would be doing all the heavy lifting in terms of being the draw because Crawford isn’t a PPV attraction and is mainly just popular in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska rather than nationally in the U.S.
I think the only fight that would bring Pacquiao out of retirement for one last match would be Floyd Mayweather Jr. If Mayweather showed interest in fighting Pacquiao in a rematch, then of course, I could see Pacquiao briefly setting aside his political responsibilities so that he can come back and try and avenge his loss to Mayweather from 2015. Besides that, it would be a fight that would give Pacquiao a tremendous payday. Fighting Mayweather would mean huge money for Pacquiao. Fighting Broner or Crawford definitely wouldn’t be huge money like he got for the Mayweather fight. Crawford and Broner are fights that would likely give Pacquiao similar money that he received for his third fight against Bradley.