By Michael Collins: Bob Arum will have Manny Pacquiao fight on June 9th in an outdoor arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Floyd Mayweather Jr., who will begin serving his 90-day jail term on June 1st, is apparently not in Arum’s plans for Pacquiao. Arum wants to go with one of his four choices that he previously picked out for Pacquiao to fight rather than Mayweather.
Arum would be open to matching Pacquiao up with Mayweather if he could take the fight after the outside 38,000 seat arena is completed, but Mayweather will be serving his 90-day jail term when that happens. Mayweather starts his jail term on June 1st. Arum was hoping that Mayweather could move his date again by asking for another extension from Las Vegas judge Melissa Saragosa. However, that’s not going to happen and Mayweather is reportedly legally bound to the May 5th. It would be simple if Arum were to get his fighter Pacquiao to move his date forward and date the fight with Mayweather on May 5th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Arum doesn’t want to do this, seeing as throwing away money that could be made if Pacquiao and Mayweather were to fight in a larger venue. When Arum does finally decide to match Pacquiao with Mayweather, he wants to make as much money as possible for his fighter. Arum would rather match Pacquiao up with one of his guys that he handpicked and then try and match Pacquiao with Mayweather later on in the year in November.
According to Sports Illustrated writer Chris Mannix, Arum met with contractors on Wednesday to see when the outside door 38,000 seat arena will be completed and apparently it won’t be ready for a Mayweather fight.
Arum said “To be safe, they needed until the end of May to get it done. Economically, it’s a problem that Floyd created. The amount that would be lost by moving it up to May 5th is enormous. The fight is not going to happen on May 5th. We’ll do the fight in November. There is no real magic in doing it in May.”
Arum seems alright with waiting for the Mayeather-Pacquiao fight. I wonder if he’ll feel that way if Pacquiao gets beat in his next fight? I think Arum might be kicking himself for letting the fight marinate too long. We saw how Arum did that with Juan Manuel Lopez when he waited too long on a fight against Yuriorkis Gamboa. Lopez ended up getting beaten by Orlando Salido and now few people want to see the Lopez-Gamboa fight, other than those who are into mismatches.
Lopez will probably be lucky if he can get through 12 rounds with Salido in their rematch without getting knocked out again. Pacquiao is showing signs of aging and slowing down. We saw that in his last couple of fights. Arum could blow a huge payday for Pacquiao if he waits too long on the Mayweather fight. Of course, if Arum isn’t interested in that fight and is merely using excuses, then none of this really matters.