Pacquiao hoping to return to the ring in April

By ESB - 12/22/2012 - Comments

By Rob Smith: Manny Pacquiao has no interest in sitting around and waiting until September 2013 before he fights again. Pacquiao reportedly is interested in getting back in action in April despite his 6th round knockout loss to his old nemesis Juan Manuel Marquez on December 8th of this month.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission gave Pacquiao a 120 day suspension from boxing due to his bad knockout loss. However, that’s the Nevada Commission. Arum plans on making the Pacquiao-Marquez 5th fight in Texas, and that’s a whole different ball game. If Pacquiao wants to fight in April, you can bet the Texas Commission will allow him to as long as he can pass the medical examination to prove that he’s fit to fight.

Bob Arum wants to place the Pacquiao-Marquez 5th fight in the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Pacquiao has already fought there twice in fights with Joshua Clottey and Antonio Margarito in 2010, and both fights drew over 40,000 fans, which are great numbers. But you’d have to imagine that a Pacquiao-Marquez fight will draw even more than that due to Marquez’s huge popularity with the Mexican community.

A lot of fans from the surrounding area will jump at the chance to come see Marquez take on Pacquiao to see if he can repeat his knockout of the Filipino star. You have to imagine that a Pacquiao vs. Marquez 5 fight could draw well over 50,000 fans in the Cowboy Stadium.

If Pacquiao wants to fight in April he’ll fight in April. I personally think it’s dumb for him to rush back to the ring so soon after the kind of knockout that he suffered against Marquez, but I can understand how he might not want to sit around for 9 months while he waits for September 2013, the date that Arum wants him to return to the ring.

By not fighting in April and August, Pacquiao will be losing out on as much as $50 million. That’s a lot of money to be losing, and I think a lot of people would choose to get back in the ring as fast possible like Pacquiao because of the cash that they’d be losing by not getting back in the ring.

The question here is whether Pacquiao can still take a hard shot. We won’t know that until he gets in the ring and fights, but his promoter wants to have him checked out at the Cleveland Clinic in Las Vegas to make sure that his head is okay after his knockout.