By Chris Williams: Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions opened his yap this weak about the Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather contract being close to finalized. I don’t necessarily buy it.
I think there’s tons of things that can still go wrong that will derail this fight from happening, one of them being the blood tests that Mayweather has been asking for.
So, I think that there’s a chance that the fight won’t materialize even though it would be a case of both of these fighters walking away from more money to accept less against other opponents. This is exactly what happened last time they tried negotiate.
Pacquiao went his way and fought Joshua Clottey for less than he would have gotten against Mayweather, whereas Mayweather fought Shane Mosley and made close but not quite the same kind of money he would have received in a fight against Pacquiao.
But let’s say that the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight doesn’t get made, who will Bob Arum, Pacquiao’s Top Rank promoter, match Pacquiao up with for a Plan B fight? Will it be another mismatch with Miguel Cotto or will Arum take more chances with Pacquiao by putting him in with WBC junior middleweight champion Sergio Martinez.
I know Arum would like to match Pacquiao up with Antonio Margarito but I don’t think that fight is going to happen because Margarito might not be able to get his boxing license back in the United States after his license was revoked last year because a plaster-like substance was found on his hand wraps.
I can’t see Arum flying Pacquiao to Mexico to fight Margarito, so that fight won’t happen unless Margarito gets his boxing license back. Even if it does happen, it might not bring in good enough numbers to make it worthwhile. I’d like to think that Arum is taking polls to see what the fans are really interested in rather than just coming up with an idea and going with it despite the signs that fans don’t want to see this fight.
Some boxing fans would like to see Pacquiao-Margarito, but I’d bet they would rather see a rematch between Cotto and Pacquiao than a fight between Pacquiao and Margarito.
There’s not a lot of other options for Pacquiao besides Margarito and Cotto, if Arum has his mind made up that he only wants to put Pacquiao in with his Top Rank fighters. The problem is Pacquiao has already destroyed Cotto, and that might not be such an interesting fight anymore with only a year separating their previous fight.
It would be nice if Arum was to try putting Pacquiao in with someone like Sergio Martinez or Paul Williams. Or if this really is Pacquiao’s last fight, it would be great if Arum made a move to try and talk Golden Boy Promotions into matching their young star Amir Khan up with Pacquiao.
I know they would like to wait a year or so before putting Khan in with the top fighters in boxing, but with this being Pacquiao’s last fight of his career, I’m sure they would make an exception for Khan this one time. It would be a great way for Khan to get some exposure and if he doesn’t get beaten too badly, he could emerge as a huge star from this.
If I’m Arum, I’d forget all about going over old ground by matching Pacquiao up with Cotto again and instead would look to make a Khan-Pacquiao fight happen right now, that is, if the Pacquiao vs. Mayweather fight can’t happen.
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