Pacquiao finishing last part of training camp

By Boxing News - 10/23/2016 - Comments

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By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao has arrived in Los Angeles and he’s finishing up the very last part of his long training camp to get ready for his title shot against WBO 147lb champion Jessie Vargas on November 5. The fight could lead to a match between Pacquiao and light welterweight champion Terence Crawford, according to Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum.

We don’t know that for a factor though. Arum mentioning Pacquiao vs. Crawford right now reminds me a lot of how Arum used to mention Floyd Mayweather Jr’s name a lot before Pacquiao’s fights before they eventually faced each other last year.

If Arum is just name dropping Crawford’s name to drive the pay-per-view buys for the Pacquiao-Vargas fight, then he might be mentioning the wrong name. Crawford isn’t a big enough name to attract buys for the Pacquiao-Vargas fight. I think it would take for Arum to be name dropping Saul Canelo Alvarez or Gennady “GGG” Golovkin for Pacquiao to get fans interested in paying to see Pacquiao-Vargas, because there’s not a lot of interest in this fight. In hindsight, Arum should have known better than to put Pacquiao in with Vargas. If I was a promoter, I wouldn’t have done it. I’d have gone outside of my stable to find names if I didn’t have anyone left worth paying to watch.

“He’s faster. We’ll see in the ring,” said Pacquiao about Vargas’s hand speed. “I don’t want to underestimate him. He is different than other boxers.”

Vargas is not much different than other boxers. He’s a simple fighter that likes to throw right hands. If Pacquiao can’t beat him, then he’s done. Vargas is not someone that you can throw in the ring with Keith Thurman, Kell Brook, Errol Spence Jr., Shawn Porter, Tim Bradley or Danny Garcia and expect him to beat those guys. We already saw Vargas get trounced by Bradley last year in a one-sided fight.

“If Manny wins the fight and funny enough with Crawford going again in December, it’s possible to do an April fight if Manny and Crawford are successful,” Arum said to RingTv.com. “Crawford against Manny – that’s a possibility. That would be a great match.”

I wonder if Arum floated this idea by Pacquiao before he started talking about the Pacquiao-Crawford fight. If the best that Arum can do for Pacquiao is put him in with Crawford, then that’s disappointing. Crawford’s pay-per-view fight against Viktor Postol brought in rumored 50,000 buys last July. Why would Pacquiao want to fight someone with just 50,000 buys in his only effort on PPV? I don’t see any upside for Pacquiao in taking a fight against Crawford.

There’s got to be something better out there for Pacquiao than fighting Crawford. How about Arum name dropping Canelo or Golovkin? What about Keith Thurman, Adrien Broner, Danny Garcia, Shawn Porter or Amir Khan? Those would be better fights for Pacquiao than sticking him in with Crawford.

Pacquiao needs to make sure he doesn’t lose his fight against Vargas on November 5, because if he does, then there’s no point in Arum talking up a fight between Pacquiao and Vargas. Yeah, Arum can put the Pacquiao-Crawford fight together after Pacquiao loses to Vargas, but who’s going to want to pay to watch it? If they put it on regular HBO, then some fans would watch it, but if HBO doesn’t have any dates to show that fight, then what can you do?

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