Manny Pacquiao
ONCE PLATINUM, HAS MANNY PACQUIAO BEEN REDUCED TO SILVER?
San Francisco, CA– If you still think that Manny Pacquiao doesn’t deserve the bulk of the blame for his declining status in the boxing world, you’re not looking at this through an unbiased eye. The word coming out of Las Vegas is that the Filipino icon may fight Juan Manuel Marquez late this year. If this comes to fruition, it’ll be their fourth fight against one another. After losing, albeit controversially to Tim Bradley a fortnight ago, Pacquiao really has few options on the table.
ARUM DOESN’T WANT TO KISS FLOYD’S RUMP!
First off, Manny and promoter Bob Arum want nothing to do with Floyd Mayweather. Let me correct myself here, Manny might be willing to fight Floyd, but Arum wants no part of having “to kiss” Floyd’s butt during negotiations and hear him “dog” Massa’ Bob afterwards, especially at the post fight press conference. If Floyd were to win, and think he’s about a 4-1 favorite right now, Bob Arum might skip the post fight press conference as Mayweather would berate him in a manner Bob has never before experienced.
BASED ON THE LAST TWO-THREE YEARS, IT’S ALL FLOYD ANYWAY!
Besides, Arum isn’t dumb and realizes that Pacquiao-Mayweather would not be competitive and that his guy would in all likelihood be embarrassed. The skill level, even with their ages, Pacquiao is 33, while Mayweather is 35, is not even close. If you didn’t see it in the third Pacquiao-Marquez fight, of which a majority of the media felt Manny lost, then you certainly had to get the message after the Bradley fight.
PACQUIAO HAS HIMSELF TO BLAME FOR LOSING TO BRADLEY
It doesn’t matter how you scored the Bradley fight, a majority of people, like the Marquez fight where Manny got a gift, felt Pacquiao beat Bradley. Even so, he looked old, went back to being one-dimensional and took so much time off during a number of rounds, that whether you want to believe it or not, Pacquiao allowed the fight to be close and eventually go to Bradley. There was no fire in his belly, Manny went back to his “money” punch, the left cross, and if he wasn’t as old and had the fights he’s had in the last ten years, you’d have thought this was the “green” Pacquiao, when in fact it is the “old” (age wise) Pacquiao.
LAMPLEY HAS BECOME A TV EVANGELIST FOR HBO “HOUSE” FIGHTERS
Having watched the fight a second time, it was very close, not the rout that HBO’s TV evangelist Jim Lampley made the fight sound. But setting that aside for the moment, why would Pacquiao even fight Tim Bradley? I mean, it was a “lose-lose” situation for Pacquiao, no matter the results.
ANYTHING OTHER THAN FLOYD-MANNY, OUTSIDE OF MARQUEZ, WOULD BE ANTI-CLIMACTIC
The fight people wanted to see was Mayweather-Pacquiao on May 5. But Manny, after saying he “would have fought” Floyd May 5, but that he was going to jail, became the Marcel Marceau of boxing in that he became a mime after Mayweather’s sentencing date was delayed until June 1. The fact that Manny did the mime act after Floyd called his bluff is telling me that he really didn’t want the fight.
IF MARQUEZ AND MANNY GO AGAIN, THERE WILL BE LESS INTEREST!
After the controversy over the Pacquiao victory over Marquez last November, that was a “hot” fight, one in which both parties could’ve made a boatload of cash. Next to Manny and Floyd, Pacquiao-Marquez 4 was the hottest fight out there for Manny. But he instead listened to, followed, bowed for, whatever he did with promoter Arum, Pacquiao instead went with Bradley, and like Marquez in the minds of the masses last November, got burned on two scorecards. What I can’t understand is why anyone, outside of Arum who promotes Bradley and Pacquiao, who else would want to see Pac-Bradley?
LIVE GATE WASN’T BAD AT ALL!
Now while the live gate was good, as 13,229 paid which translates to $8,963,180, the Pay Per View numbers have yet to be reported. But if the object of prizefighting is to make the most money possible per fight, why then did Pacquiao get a $6 million guarantee, while Bradley got just a million less at $5 million? Surely a fourth Marquez fight, coming off the November encounter, would have meant more money, sold out the MGM Grand and did in the neighborhood of 1.5 million PPV buys. Thus, why even face Bradley, who is not known outside of the boxing cult?
SURPRISE LOSS COST MANNY SOME MONEY & POSITIONING
Then we get the unexpected decision for Bradley, and now Pacquiao’s value, whether you want to believe it or not, has dropped. Coming off the win over Miguel Cotto, Mayweather’s stock rose a little. In the meantime, we have Manny (or Arum, or both) not wanting anything to do with Mayweather, a Bradley rematch although not out of the question, is the third option, with the second being Juan Manuel Marquez in November. Marquez, now 39 and over the hill in the minds of many, seemingly has Pacquiao’s number and would be far more intriguing than Pacquiao-Mayweather, for every astute boxing pundit knows that Floyd is AAA, while Manny in his last five fights has dropped to AA. Had only Pacquiao agreed to “random drug testing” for a March 2010 fight with Floyd, after EVERYTHING else was agreed to, we wouldn’t even be discussing this today.
Pedro Fernandez