By Chris Williams: Brandon Rios says that Manny Pacquiao needs to either retire from boxing or move up in weight to fight middleweights Gennady “GGG” Golovkin or Saul Canelo Alvarez. Rios thinks that Pacquiao has been fighting for too long of a time, and he’s already fought everyone there is to fight. Rios doubts that the boxing fans want to see Pacquiao fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. again, because they already saw it and won’t pay for it a second time.
There’s not much chance of Mayweather Jr. fighting Pacquiao again. That’s not going to happen. Mayweather seems to be enjoying his retirement from boxing. He’s not going to come back and deal with another training camp, even though he could probably still make a lot of money in that fight.
Rios said this to esnewsreporting.com about Pacquiao fighting Canelo or Golovkin:
“I think it’s time for him to hang it up and let the new guys come in,” said Rios. “He wants Floyd. Everybody already saw that one and they’re not going to pay for that fight like they made for the first one. No disrespect to Manny, I don’t think there’s anyone out there for him unless he goes up in weight to fight Canelo or Triple G. That’s the only one. Other than that, I don’t see anyone else for him,” said Rios.
Pacquiao’s match-making is up his promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank, and he seems to be more interested in matching him only against guys from his own stable of fighters. That’s pretty much what Arum mostly done in the last seven years of his career. Arum wants to match Pacquiao against Jeff Horn, Vasyl Lomachenko and Terence Crawford before he retires.
Pacquiao just fought two consecutive Top Rank fighters in Jessie Vargas and Tim Bradley, and the PPV numbers were far less than what he used to bring in. The boxing public probably won’t purchase Pacquiao’s fights against Horn, Crawford and Lomachenko, because none of those guys are stars in the real sense of the word. They’re known by the hardcore boxing fans.
Putting Pacquiao in with Golovkin and Canelo will likely make him much more money. I’m not sure that Arum is thinking of money with Pacquiao’s match-making at this point. I think he’s trying to turn Lomachenko, Crawford and Horn into long term stars that can pump money into his Top Rank stable. The way to do that is to have them fight Pacquiao one after another and hope that they all get a bounce from having fought him.
It happens sometimes where a fighter is turned into a star after they fight a big name. Unfortunately, it hasn’t happened in a while. Pacquiao became a star after beating a shot and weight drained Oscar De La Hoya in 2008. Mayweather became a big PPV star after he beat De La Hoya in 2007. I don’t think it’s going to work for Horn, Crawford or Lomachenko though.
Boxing fans aren’t going to start paying to see super featherweight Lomachenko. That’s a fail if Arum thinks that. Likewise, I do not see Horn becoming a PPV attraction in the U.S.
It’s too bad we’re not going to see Pacquiao fight Canelo or Golovkin, because I think either of those match-ups would be far more appealing than seeing Pacquiao fight little Lomachenko, the little known Horn, and Crawford. Those are not great fight.
I can’t see a lot of boxing fans purchasing those fights. If Pacquiao can’t get big guarantees from Arum to fight the guys he wants him to fight like those three, then isn’t he fighting guys that he can get possible big guarantees fighting? I think the boxing public would be very interested in seeing Pacquiao fight Canelo or Golovkin?