By Chris Williams: It looks like Bob Arum is going to try and maximize revenue for the 5th fight between Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KO’s) and Juan Manuel Marquez (55-6-1, 40 KO’s) in 2013 with the fight taking place in the huge 80,000 seat Cowboy Stadium in Arlington, Texas, according to the Manila Bulletin.
Pacquiao has twice fought at the Cowboy Stadium and brought in big numbers of 40,000+ for his mismatches against Top Rank stable fighters Antonio Margarito and Joshua Clottey. The fights were ugly, one-sided affaires there not even close to being competitive fights, but a lot of boxing fans showed up to see them.
The last four fights between Pacquiao and Marquez have all took place in Las Vegas, Nevada for some reason, which doesn’t make any sense at all because if Arum had put those fights in Texas or Los Angeles, where there is a large Mexican community, he likely could have attracted a lot more fans to come see the fights. To be sure, the four fights have all done well in Las Vegas, but can you imagine how much better they would have done had Arum staged them in Texas?
The pay per view totals still haven’t been released for the Pacquiao-Marquez 4 fight, and I suspect we won’t hear an official total of the numbers are respectable. If the totals are 1 million buy and above, I see Arum releasing them to the public. Pacquiao is getting a guaranteed $23 million for the Marquez 4 fight, and Marquez $3 million. Both fighters will make additional money with the PPV upside on the fight.
Marquez could close the final chapter of the Pacquiao-Marquez fights next year if he knocks Pacquiao out cold again. If that happens then you can bet that there won’t be any future fights between them because Marquez will either be deemed too dangerous or Pacquiao will simply retire. I don’t see Pacquiao retiring, but I do see Arum keeping Pacquiao far away from Marquez for the remainder of the short amount of time Pacquiao has left in his career.
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