Arum not closing the door on a 5th Pacquiao-Marquez fight taking place

By Boxing News - 12/04/2012 - Comments

Image: Arum not closing the door on a 5th Pacquiao-Marquez fight taking placeBy Chris Williams: You know the saying “Never say never.” Well, Manny Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum isn’t ruling out a 5th fight between Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez from taking place, and you can bet if their fight this weekend brings in huge pay per view numbers, Arum will look to put them together again next year after he matched Pacquiao against one of his Top Rank stable fighters Brandon Rios in April.

Arum said to Yahoo “There is a possibility [of Pacquiao-Marquez fight]. Robinson and Lamotta fought six times.”

That’s not surprising that Arum isn’t closing the door on the Pacquiao vs. Marquez rivalry because it’s bringing in such good green cash that he’s probably not going to shut down that revenue stream while it’s still bringing in the green stuff.

I think it’s sad because there are so many fighters that could be turned into attractions by getting the chance to fight Pacquiao. Just fighting a big name, whether it be Pacquiao or Miguel Cotto, can turn a non-star into a bigger name. They don’t even have to win and a fighter can build a big fan base by fighting a star. This is why I think it’s bad for boxing to have Arum matching Pacquiao against the same guy over and over again.

Arum needs to consider what’s going to happen when these two aging fighters retire. What happens then? Who takes over? There won’t be anyone to fill the vacuum because Arum has kept Pacquiao fighting the same guy. I guess it won’t matter to Arum because he’s up there and age and already rich. But the sport will continue to move along after Arum, Pacquiao and Marquez are gone and it’s not good to see this same fight made repeatedly.

I know Rios is considered new blood but that’s tainted new blood in my view, because of his questionable decision win over Richard Abril this year. Once Rios proves he can beat Abril, I think he can start looking for bigger names like Pacquiao.



Comments are closed.