Pacquiao won’t fight in October, says business manager

By Boxing News - 07/03/2016 - Comments

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By Chris Williams: Eric Pineda, the business manager for Filipino star Manny Pacquiao, says he won’t be returning to the ring in October. Pacquiao has too many responsibilities in terms of his new job as a senator in the Philippines for him to come back in October, Pineda says.

Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum is going to be going to the Philippines after the fourth of July to discuss a comeback fight for him. Arum has set aside October 15 for Pacquiao at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. The potential opponents that Arum is said to be interested in matching Pacquiao against one of the following fighters: Terence Crawford, Danny Garcia or Adrien Broner.

Presumably, it would be Pacquiao’s call to pick from one of those guys, but who knows if that would be the case or not? If you see Pacquiao fighting Crawford, then you have to think that either Arum made the decision.

“That’s what the promoter is trying to do convincing Manny [Pacquiao] to fight in October, but it won’t happen, not so fast,” Pineda told The Manila Times. “There are a lot of things to do as a senator. Manny will not return in October. That is very hard because he is a working senator now. It is a tougher job than being a congressman. It is not going to happen now, I think. He is focusing on his work,” Pineda said.

If Pacquiao was really interested in coming back, he would be the one that would be calling Arum to let him know rather than it being the reversal of that. What I want to know is why the 84-year-old Arum is going to fly all the way over to the Philippines just so that he can talk to Pacquiao.

By Arum going to the Philippines to talk to Pacquiao about him resuming his career, it gives the appearance that Arum believes he can talk him into coming back. I don’t know that it’s going to work for Arum if that’s his plan, because the choices for Pacquiao are poor as far as big fights go. Pacquiao isn’t going to make a ton of money fighting Crawford, Broner or Danny Garcia. If that’s all Arum has for Pacquiao, then he might as well trot out Tim Bradley for a fourth fight, because he’ll make about the same kind of money fighting him.

“Let’s see what will be Manny’s decision after we talk there,” said Arum.

If Arum could get Floyd Mayweather Jr. for Pacquiao to fight, then he would have a much better chance of success in getting him to agree to a comeback in October. But we know good and well that Mayweather is not ready to come back to the ring right not for a fight against Pacquiao. That doesn’t mean that the rematch can’t happen. It just means it probably won’t happen this year on a date that Arum has already set aside on October 15.

It’s never worked in the past when Arum has set aside a date for one of Pacquiao’s fights. Mayweather isn’t going to fall behind Arum and readily agree to a date that he’s specifically set out. If Mayweather is going to fight again, it’ll very likely be on one of the Mexican holidays in May or September, and Pacquiao would need to agree that if he wants to get a fight against him. If he chooses to say no, then he probably wouldn’t get the fight.

With Arum wanting Pacquiao to fight in October, it rules out any possibility of someone popular like Saul “Canelo” Alvarez being a candidate for Pacquiao, because Canelo is fighting on September 17 against WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith. Canelo would be the best bet of the existing active fighters in the sport right now for Pacquiao to get a big payday. Middleweight Gennady “GGG” Golovkin or Miguel Cotto would be other options.

It just doesn’t seem too likely that Pacquiao will want to fight dangerous punchers like them because it could make him look bad if he gets knocked out by one of them. Pacquiao would be giving away so much weight against either guy that it might make it impossible for him to win. Pacquiao would get a lot of money though against either of them. He might be seen as a heroic figure with his constituents if he’s seen taking on much heavier and powerful fighters like Canelo or Golovkin.