Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says that 48 million homes in China watched the mismatch between Arum’s fighter Manny Pacquiao and little known Chris Algieri last November in their fight from Macao, China. The fight was painfully one-sided from start to finish with Pacquiao beating the hapless Algieri like a drum.
It wasn’t one of the more interesting fights to watch if you’re a fan of competitive matches, but then again we knew it was going to be a mismatch going in so it wasn’t a surprise.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has no interest whatsoever in staging the mega fight between his fighter Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr on the Mexican holiday on May 2nd. According to Arum, he sees this as disrespectful to the Mexican people that Mayweather wants to fight on the May 2nd date, which is the Cinco de Mayo holiday.
Arum sees that May 2nd date belonging to Mexican fighter Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who was not long ago easily beaten by Mayweather. The idea is Canelo will fight Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto on the May 2nd date instead of Mayweather fighting Pacquiao. Arum promotes Cotto, so it’s a win-win situation for him if that fight goes ahead on May 2nd. Arum prefers the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight to take place in April or June of next year.
GENERAL SANTOS CITY, PHILIPPINES (October 23, 2014) — Fighter of the Decade and World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight champion, Congressman MANNY “Pacman” PACQUIAO (56-5-2, 38 KOs), the lone congressional representative from the Sarangani Province of the Philippines, his Hall of Fame trainer FREDDIE ROACH and Hall of Fame promoter BOB ARUM hosted an international Media Conference Call today. Emanating from General Santos City, Philippines, where Pacquiao has been in deep, rigorous training for his title defense battle with undefeated WBO junior welterweight world champion CHRIS ALGIERI (20-0, 8 KOs), of Huntington, NY on Long Island, their eagerly-anticipated world championship collision is just five weeks away.
(Photo credit: Naoki Fakuda) Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is expecting #2 WBA Marcos Antonio Rubio (59-6-1, 51 KOs) to give World Boxing Association Super World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (30-0, 27 KOs) a tough time tonight when the two sluggers clash at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. The fight will be televised on regular HBO, and it should a good fight for as long as it lasts.
Arum thinks that most of Golovkin’s opponents come into the fights against him intimidated by his reputation, and that makes tougher to beat.
If Top Rank promoter Bob Arum gets his way boxing fans could be seeing a fight between Arum’s fighter Manny Pacquiao and WBA/WBA welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr in Macao, China in 2015. Arum likes the idea of having the Pacquiao vs. Mayweather fight staged in Macao for some reason.
It could have something to do with a huge site fee that Arum would likely get for staging the fight in Macao, as well as the opportunity to help open up China for pay-per-view. The chances of Mayweather agreeing to fight Pacquiao right now are slim for the early part of 2015, and you’d have to think much, much slimmer that Mayweather ever agree to face Pacquiao in Macao. With Arum already talking Macao before Mayweather has even showed any intereest at all in fighting Pacquiao, it seems like Arum is sabotaging his own efforts. Why talk Macao if you’re really interested in seeing your fighter Pacquiao fight Mayweather? This reminds me of the time Arum was talking about an outdoor stadium needing to be built in order to house more fans for a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight.
(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr told the media on Tuesday that there is zero truth to him being in negotiations for a fight against WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao. There are no secret negotiations of any kind. Mayweather feels that Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank are mentioning his name in order to try and sell tickets and attract interest for Pacquiao’s November 22nd fight against little known fighter Chris Algieri in Macao, China.
“Not true,” Mayweather said. “I can’t say what the future holds, but Arum and Pacquiao is trying to sell tickets for the (fight with the) guy named (Chris) Algieri. Trying to sell tickets for that fight. I don’t know where they fighting, I don’t know anything about what Top Rank is doing.”
In a sign that WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto will be taking on a lesser fighter in his next fight in December, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says that Cotto’s next fight will likely not be on HBO pay-per-view.
Arum notes that the pay-per-view numbers are down across the board among all the top stars in boxing, and he feels that Cotto’s December fight shouldn’t be on PPV. What that means, of course, is that Arum likely has a good idea about who Cotto will be fighting next, because if Cotto were facing the likes of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez or Gennady Golovkin, he would clearly be fighting on HBO pay-per-view.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is reportedly going to take his time and wait until possibly August before he selects the lucky candidate for his fighter WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao’s next fight on November 22nd at the Venetian Casino & Resort, Macao, Macao S.A.R., China.
It’s possible that the longer Arum waits the better the chances are that he can get a big name some the likes of Golden Boy Promotions. But if not, then his options aren’t quite as good with Chris Algieri and Luis Carlos Abregu being two of the candidates to get the fight.
Bob Arum may be the only one in the entire world to be so confident that Mayweather Jr. will soon face his pride and glory Manny Pacquaio, but who is Arum trying to convince? Himself or the boxing community?
“I think that fight will eventually happen. We are certainly open to the fight happening and we are prepared to sit down with the Mayweather team at any time and work out terms,” stated Arum.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is all bent out of shape with the way that Floyd Mayweather Jr. has treated Britain’s Amir Khan by not naming him as his next opponent for May 3rd, and having him compete for the fight with Marcos Maidana on his website poll at Mayweatherpromotions.com.
Khan won the poll, but Mayweather still hasn’t named him as his next opponent yet. Arum says he would never do that with his fighters in his stable, and he thinks that Khan should “cut his ties with them.” Arum thinks Mayweather has decided to fight Maidana instead of Khan.