By Michael Collins: Bob Arum is reportedly going to be offering IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson a fight against Juan Manuel Marquez for April in Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, according to RingTV.
This would be one part of Arum’s vision of a four-fighter tournament. The other half will be a fight between Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley, which would be taking place on June 9th in Las Vegas, Nevada. The winner of the Marquez-Peterson, Pacquiao-Bradley fights would meet in November in a finals type bout.
Arum likes this format if he’s unable to get Floyd Mayweather Jr. or his plan B alternative Miguel Cotto to agree to fight Pacquiao in June. Mayweather has already priced himself out of a Pacquiao fight by asking for a 60-40 deal, whereas Cotto is refusing to drain down to 147 to fight Pacquiao for his WBO welterweight title.
Pacquiao has no intention of fighting Cotto at a150 pound catchweight that Cotto wants. This means that Arum will look for Timothy Bradley to face Pacquiao next unless Cotto has a change of mind about the weight, because Pacquiao probably won’t be the one to back down on this.
Arum told RingTV “We could have a tournament. Let’s say that if Mayweather doesn’t ever come to the table, which is a possibility. Then let’s say that Manny fights Bradley because Cotto has a problem with the weight, then Marquez fights Peterson and the winner of that fights fights the winner of Pacquiao-Bradley – if that’s the fight we make.”
It looks like Arum is serious enough about this idea to be ready to make an offer to Peterson on Friday for the Marquez fight. If Arum goes ahead with this plan then it means that there won’t be a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight in November, because that’s when the winner of the Pacquiao-Bradley, Peterson-Marquez will be meeting up.
Arum’s new idea about the four fighter tournament wasn’t greeted with happiness by Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer, who sees this as just more proof that Arum didn’t have any plan on matching Pacquiao with Mayweather even in November. It’s hard to disagree with that because this does like Arum is booking up Pacquiao’s entire year with this tourney.