By Trevor McIntyre: Top Rank head honcho Bob Arum arrived in the Philippines on Fruday to meet with WBA World welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao to talk about future fights, according to Philstar. The 39-year-old Pacquiao used to be promoted by the 86-year-old Arum, but he’s now a promotion free agent.
For Arum to have traveled all the way to the Philippines to speak to Pacquiao, it’s a big hint that he may be on the verge of making a deal with him. It’s a long way for Arum to travel if he weren’t making some kind of a deal.
Despite Pacquiao being a free agent, his last fight against WBA World welterweight champion Lucas Matthysse was broadcasted by Top Rank on ESPN+ in the U.S. Pacquiao surprised many boxing fans in stopping the 36-year-old Pacquiao in the 7th round to win his WBA Word 147 pound title. The knockout win for Pacquiao was his first since his 12th round stoppage win over Miguel Cotto in their catch-weight fight in 2009. Pacquiao looked very muscular for the Matthysse fight. His physique looked like how he used to back in 2009. The power on Pacquiao’s shots looked formidable throughout the contest. It was clear from the way Pacquiao looked and the way he was punching that he was going to knockout Matthysse sooner or later.
If Arum can continue to broadcast Pacquiao’s fights on Top Rank Boxing on ESPN+, he would be helping his company. It’s unclear whether Pacquiao can get a better broadcast deal with one of the other networks like HBO or Showtime.
Pacquiao has been a free agent since losing to Jeff Horn by a controversial 12 round decision in 2017 in his last fight with Top Rank. Arum promotes Horn.
MP Promotions “will be handling any and all negotiations for my next fight,” Pacquiao said via Phil Star.
The victory over Pacquiao puts him in the position to get a nice payday fight against top names like Amir Khan, Mikey Garcia, Errol Spence Jr., Shawn Porter, Danny Garcia and Keith Thurman. Arum would obviously like to have Pacquiao fight his Top Rank stable guys Terence Crawford and/or Vasyl Lomachenko. Pacquiao would make Arum very happy if he agreed to fight Lomachenko or Crawford. Whether Pacquiao will do so is anyone’s guess. It’s likely that Pacquiao could make a lot more money fighting someone like Amir Khan or Mikey Garcia than Lomachenko or Crawford. Garcia and Khan are popular in the U.S with a lot of boxing fans. Arum might be able to pay Pacquiao a lot of money to fight Lomachenko or Crawford, but those are bad match-ups for him. He would likely do better fighting Khan or Mikey Garcia. Whatever money Pacquiao could make fighting Crawford or Lomachenko, it might not be worth it because those guys have bad styles for him. With Arum’s deep pockets, he could probably offer Pacquiao a ton of money to face Lomachenko or Crawford.