Why does Arum want to match Margarito up against Pacquiao rather than someone else?

By Chris Williams: I can’t figure out why Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is so interested in matching Antonio Margarito up against Manny Pacquiao rather than someone else either inside his own stable or preferably outside. Recently, Pacquiao sent out a press release where he said he was still interested in facing Floyd Mayweather Jr. in November. Arum then came out saying that Margarito is definitely going to be fighting Pacquiao on November 13th. Why Margarito and not someone else? Heck, Margarito doesn’t even have a boxing license to fight in the United States and he may not even get it all by the time the fight takes place in November.

I can understand Arum wanting Margarito to fight Pacquiao, but not coming off of a year long suspension and still not with a boxing license. The timing for this fight is horrible. If this was just one of Arum’s prospects that he wanted to match Margarito up against, I wouldn’t have any problems, but this is Pacquiao. He’s considered number #1 or 2 in the world in the pound-for-pound list. Why is Arum matching a controversial figure like Margarito up against Pacquiao at a time like this?

This is a fight that you would think should wait until Margarito had already gotten his boxing license back and fought a half dozen fights against top 15 competition. I think it will take a lot for boxing fans to forget about the hand wrap issue. But to have Margarito fighting Pacquiao after only one fight since the suspension, seems kind of bizarre to me. I know Arum can do it, because even if he doesn’t get Margarito’s boxing license back in the United States, he can still have the fight take place in Mexico or Abu Dhabi. But that doesn’t mean it’s the smart thing to do. I just don’t understand why Arum doesn’t want to entertain the idea of putting someone else in with Pacquiao. This is a fight that may do poorly with boxing fans, and if that happens we probably will never see Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. unless Arum can convince Pacquiao to accept a lot less than a 50-50 deal.