By Rob Smith: Bob Arum needs to see the big picture and open his eyes about how much his fighter Manny Pacquiao is starting to deteriorate. Pacquiao just lost to Tim Bradley and you can make a very strong argument that Pacquiao deserved to lose his fight before that against Juan Manuel Marquez last November.
That’s two consecutive losses and whether you want to ignore how badly Pacquiao you think Pacquiao beat Bradley or not, you can’t ignore how old and awful Pacquiao looked in that fight. He deserved to lose in my view of the fight, and I think Arum will be making a big mistake if he puts Pacquiao back in with Bradley or Juan Manuel Marquez. If those were the only options Pacquiao had to make money, then I would be in favor of Arum putting him back in with one or both of them at some point.
However, the big money for Pacquiao is a bout against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and that’s the fight that he needs to be going after at this point, not the small money against Marquez and Bradley. But more importantly, if Pacquiao gets beat again in his next fight, which is a very real possibility given how old he’s starting to get, then he can forget about that 50-50 deal that he so badly wants for a Mayweather bout.
I don’t think he can get it now after the Bradley loss, but he’s going to make impossible once he gets beaten again. Can you imagine Arum telling Mayweather that it has to be a 50-50 deal after Pacquiao has been beaten by Bradley twice or Bradley and then Marquez. As it is, Pacquiao perhaps should have two consecutive defeats because he fought well enough against Marquez last November to lose by two rounds. That’s best I could give Pacquiao and that’s being charitable. I also think Pacquiao lost the other two fights against Marquez.
Arum needs to cash out with Pacquiao while the Mayweather money is still on the table. As it is, Pacquiao lost a lot of money by not accepting the $40 million that Mayweather offered him to fight. Instead of taking that money, Pacquiao settled for considerably less in his loss to Bradley. Pacquiao could have a ton more money in the Mayweather Jr. and instead he settled for less and STILL got beat in his fight against Bradley. That’s just very smart, is it? Now I don’t think Mayweather will even bother offering Pacquiao $40 million now that he got beat by Bradley. Why should he give him the same offer? Pacquiao was exposed in that fight and he doesn’t look like the same fighter he once was.