By Allan Fox: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has ruled out the 26-year-old Adrien “The Problem” Broner (32-2, 24 KOs) as a potential candidate for Manny Pacquiao’s fight in October or November. Arum was interested in making a fight between Pacuiao and Broner. However, the 84-year-old Harvard educated promoter lost interest in matching them together after Broner asked for more than what he was willing to pay.
Arum says Broner wanted more money than Pacquiao. The focus now for Pacquiao’s next opponent comes down to these three strong candidates: Terence Crawford, Jessie Vargas or Danny Garcia. If you hear Arum saying Garcia wanted too much money or the internet providers not seeing him as a viable candidate for a pay-per-view fight for Pacquiao, then you can assume that one of Arum’s own fighters.
Crawford or Vargas are the ones that Arum really wants for Pacquiao to fight. Pacquiao usually fights Arum’s Top Rank fighters, so someone like Danny Garcia will likely not get the fight. Having his name mentioned among the possibilities for Pacquiao might is probably meaningless.
“He wanted more than Pacquiao. Forget it,” said Arum about Broner.
You have to wonder just how much serious interest Arum had in Broner as Pacquiao’s next opponent. Broner isn’t one of Arum’s Top Rank fighters. It would seem that if there were a great deal of interest in having Broner fight Pacquiao, then Arum would stick it out in the negotiations so that he could eventually get him to sigh. I could be wrong, but I think Pacquiao vs. Broner is a much bigger fight in terms of pay-per-view buys than Crawford or Vargas could bring to the table.
Those guys don’t have the same clout that Broner brings to the table. Broner would be a good substitute for someone like Floyd Mayweather. It would help setup an eventual rematch between Pacquiao and Mayweather. We saw how Marcos Maidana was able to get a fight against Mayweather after he beat Broner three years ago in 2013. Mayweather chose to avenge Broner’s loss by taking on Maidana and beating him in back to back fights.
Pacquiao might be able to do the same thing if he could beat Broner. The fight would have created a ton of publicity, and more importantly, it would have been a winnable fight for Pacquiao. That’s not to say that Pacquiao couldn’t beat Crawford and Vargas. I think they would be tougher fights for Pacquiao than a fight against Broner. Vargas and Crawford don’t show a lot of emotion when speaking, and neither of them have the showmanship that Broner does. It’s not even close. If Arum can’t see that then it’s worrisome. He’s got two good fighters in Crawford and Vargas, but they have the theatrics that Broner has going for him outside of the ring and I suspect they never will.
Broner would be a perfect opponent for Pacquiao to get ready for a Mayweather rematch, because he fights just like him. It would give Pacquiao practice to get ready for the real thing.