By Erwin Lastimosa
Bob Arum could have made the Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather super-fight years ago, but he didn’t do it and it’s not because he was scared that Manny would lose or that he wanted all of the money, he blocked that fight from happening and continues to block it from happening because Freddie Roach said that he only wants one more fight for Manny and that is versus Floyd Mayweather and after that he wanted him to retire from boxing.
If Pacquiao got the Mayweather fight 2 years ago, Arum would be the odd man out because Pacquiao would have retired and focused on politics. The outcome didn’t matter because if he won or lost, Manny was probably intending on retiring soon anyway. This is probably why Arum doesn’t want to make this fight happen. Without Manny in his stable who else can draw 1 million pay-per-view buys for Arum?
Here is a recent Freddie Roach interview from December 8, 2011:
If it is possible that Bob Arum does not want to make the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight happen:
Freddie Roach: “Possibly yeah. The thing is everywhere I travel in the world everyone tells me to make that fight happen and so forth. I talked to Manny’s advisors last week and they told me they are negotiating so it’s definitely a possibility and I hope that fight happens.”
If he thinks Pacquiao’s last fight will be against Mayweather:
Freddie Roach: “I think so. The thing is if Pacquiao does lose that fight – well win or lose I think he will retire. I think that’s gonna be his last fight. He’s really into politics and so forth and politics is going to take him away from boxing that’s for sure. Politics is something he wants to be good at. It’s not like the singing or dancing and acting, that’s more for fun. This is serious business and something he wants to be good at. It’s gonna take 100 percent of his time to be good at that. I feel if we do fight Mayweather, win or lose I think it will be his last fight.”
A lot of the Pacquiao die hard fans, will blame Floyd Mayweather — I was one of those who blamed Floyd for ducking Manny by bringing up the drug testing — but the more I look into this situation it is obvious that Arum was the one manipulating everything. Arum told the media that Pacquiao has a fear of needles — Manny never said this and he has no fear of needles — this was Bob Arum in panic mode because he didn’t want the fight to happen. Arum coaches Manny what to say to the media, like saying “It is up to my promoter,” or “no comment”. There seems to be a small legion of Pacquiao fans who will even defend Bob Arum, they think if you blame Arum you are not a true Pacquiao fan and a hater. No one is blaming Manny Pacquiao at all, the only thing we want now from Manny is for him to finally speak up and demand the fight, instead of being indifferent.
What doesn’t make sense is these Pac fans who defend and have this loyalty to Arum just because Manny works for him. Do you not know how corrupt boxing promoters are? Remember former Pacman promoter Murad Muhammad who Pacquiao sued for financial misdeeds and won a settlement out of court? Just because Bob Arum is apart of Team Pacquiao doesn’t mean you cannot question him. Wake up, and realize what’s really going on here — Arum doesn’t want to make Pacquiao vs. Mayweather because of the huge possibility that Pacquiao will retire after that fight and leave Arum without a cash cow.
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Erwin Lastimosa is a long time boxing fan and enjoys boxing discussion with his peers. Some of his favorite fighters are Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Marvin Hagler, Muhammad Ali, Flash Elorde, Mike Tyson and Manny Pacquiao.