By Juan dela Cruz: After teaching Brandon “Bam Bam” Rios a boxing lesson at The Venetian Hotel in Macau, China last Saturday, the world in now asking, “Who’s next for Manny Pacquiao?” Several names cropped up during an interview with Bob Arum, Top Rank big boss, right after the fight. They were Floyd Mayweather Jr, Juan Manuel Marquez, Timothy Bradley, and Ruslan Provodnikov.
Despite Arum saying Mayweather fight is still a possibility, we all knew it won’t happen simply because Floyd doesn’t want it for many ridiculous reasons only he can make. So the names can be trimmed down to only three, Marquez, Bradley, and Provodnikov. We all knew Pacquiao is always ready to face anyone of them. But he needs to determine who’s gonna be first.
Marquez fight is the most lucrative among the three. Unfortunately, JMM raised his asking price despite being not able to bring good PPVs fighting other names than Mayweather and Pacquiao. The only reason he can give is, he beat Pacquiao last year, discounting his two losses against Manny on their earlier fights. It can be recalled also that when Manny wanted to avenge his loss against Marquez, Juan opted to face Bradley for Tim’s belt for a fifth division title for JMM, which could have made him the first Mexican to do so.
Given this scenario, if Pacquiao really wanted to face Marquez and JMM really wanted a piece of history, then Manny has to get Tim’s belt first to lure Marquez to fight him. That is if, and only if, Juan Manuel Marquez is really bent on getting another title. If Pacquiao will defeat Tim (which he already did in their last outing), then Manny will be the WBO welterweight champion. By this time, JMM could be the top challenger in that division and WBO might order Pacquiao to defend it against Marquez. And about the purse, the fight could be held in China so that there will be no tax for both of them, meaning, Arum can afford to guarantee Marquez at least 10 million dollars.
How about Provodnikov? Well, he had been to wars against Bradley and Alvarado. Arum also wanted Ruslan against Pacquiao. Time element is essential here. Provodnikov still needs a couple of fights against top tiers before facing Pacquiao. And lastly, he was also trained by Roach, so there could be problems if he will be put in front of Manny at this early.
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