By John F. McKenna (McJack): Former World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KO’s) is presently in Los Angeles with his wife Jinkee and their four children. They will soon depart for a much needed vacation in Paris, but according to Pacquiao advisor Michael Koncz, Manny will meet with Top Rank CEO Bob Arum before he departs for Paris.

Supposedly the reason Pacquiao and Arum are meeting is so that the pair can map out strategy for Pacquiao’s next fight and possible the fight after that. The horrendous decision rendered by the judges on June 9 which left Bradley with Manny’s WBO welterweight title, threw a monkey wrench into any plans Pacquiao had for future fights.

Supposedly Arum is not too keen about matching up Pacquiao with Bradley a 2nd time. There are a couple of reasons for that. The Pay Per View (PPV) numbers for the June 9th fight between Pacquiao and Bradley drew a paltry 900,000, which is the lowest amount of PPV buys for a Pacquiao fight in a number of years. By contrast Pacquiao’s fight with WBO lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez last November drew 1.4 million PPV buys or to put it simply Pacquiao – Marquez drew 500,000 more PPV buys than Pacquiao – Bradley. Do the math, at $60.00 a pop 500,000 more buys translates into a significant amount of money.

To be honest, Arum was never keen about matching Bradley with Pacquiao the first time, but circumstances forced him to accept a fighter who was actually his 3rd choice. And make no mistake about it despite what Arum says about the decision being Manny’s as to who his next opponent will be, Uncle Bob exerts a tremendous amount of leverage on Pacquiao.

Arum knows that a 4th Pacquiao – Marqeuz fight would draw far more than a 2nd Pacquaio – Bradley fight. And let’s face it, as much as Arum loves boxing, the motivating factor for him when it comes to promoting a fight is how much money will the match bring in to the coffers? Famed bank robber Willie Sutton was once asked by a star struck reporter why he continued to rob banks. Sutton’s answer was amazing in its simplicity. He responded with “I rob banks because that’s where they keep the money!”
Arum promotes the fights that will bring in the most money.

The other strike against a 2nd Pacquiao – Bradley fight is that the vast majority of boxing fans already think he convincingly won the first fight. Even the WBO officials who were summoned to watch the fight to give their take on who won say that “Pacman” was the clear winner.

Don’t be surprised that if Arum cannot coax a timid WBA light middleweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (43-0, 26 KO’s) into the ring with Pacquiao in November that Arum and Manny opt for a 4th fight with “El Dinamia”.