As a fan of Manny Pacquiao I was excited to hear the news, he will fight again, but saddened at the possibility of him fighting on the undercard of Terence Crawford vs. Jeff Horn on ESPN PPV.
Putting a legend like Pacquiao on the undercard of a PPV to lesser known draws is a slap in the face, he isn’t completely washed up like Roy Jones Jr. and still a much bigger name than Crawford and Horn.
Top Rank is using Pacquiao’s name to sell the fight on posters and commercials, fans will buy the PPV thinking he will be the main event. Top Rank is hoping those who ordered for Manny will stay to watch Crawford vs. Horn, basically forcing the public to watch the main event since they already paid to see Pacquiao fight.
The winner of Crawford vs. Horn will face Pacquiao next, that is the goal and the likely winner should be Crawford, he is the future of Top Rank along with Vasyl Lomachenko.
The truth of the matter is most boxers are at the whim of their promoter. Bob Arum only loves fighters who obey him, all of the stuff he says in the media is basic publicity.
Arum says pretty much every boxer at one point in time is greater than so and so. He said Oscar De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao were all the best he ever seen while he promoted them in their primes.
Now Vasyl Lomachenko and Terence Crawford are receiving the same promotional hype by Arum, claiming they are the best he’s seen since Muhammad Ali.
The one thing you have to give Floyd Mayweather credit for is his ability to not become a statistic in boxing, he said it many times that he will never let boxing retire him, he has shown that the fighter is the main draw and has been able to control his own career path since leaving Top Rank.
Manny Pacquiao is at the tail end of his career, he is no longer the massive draw on Pay-Per-View that he once was, and losing a controversial decision to Jeff Horn in Australia was another step back for the legend.
Arum has promotional rights to Jeff Horn, and Pacquiao is so loyal to Arum that he obeys anything he suggests, like going over to an unknown fighters hometown to defend his WBO welterweight title. Why would a big name legend go to hostile territory? The worst thing happened and he got robbed in broad day light in the challengers backyard.
Pacquiao is just an obedient employee and has no realization that Arum is just using him, he is going to put Pacquiao in with either Vasyl Lomachenko or Terence Crawford should he beat Horn, and hope that one of these talented young guns beats Manny up impressively in front of millions of viewers to create a new star.
This is a similar thing that happened when both Mayweather and Pacquiao fought and beat PPV star Oscar De La Hoya, they both became international draws. The only difference is they had the “IT” factor, we don’t know if Crawford or Lomachenko can capture the audience interest like Floyd and Manny.
Other fighters have beaten Oscar De La Hoya, and never became superstars on Pay-Per-View, but Mayweather with his bad guy image was able to get people to watch and see him lose live, while Pacquiao shined bright because of his ferocious fighting style and won fans over that way.
There is no guarantee that Crawford or Lomachenko will become PPV stars beating Pacquiao, but this is the way things go, the young lion beats the old lion, its a passing of the torch. Out with the old, in with the new.
I hope Pacquiao retires soon, he deserves more respect than to be treated as a stepping stone.
