I spoke with Top Rank boss Bob Arum a few days ago and learned a few things about Pacquiao’s next fight and opponent. Arum said, “I will be flying to The Phillipines the first week in August to meet with Manny to discuss who his next opponent will be.” He went on to say, ” I have to know who he wants to fight by August 10th so we can make the appropriate arrangements.” Pacquiao’s last fight was Vs. Timothy Bradley and he allegedly came up short in that one. According to the three blind mice that is.
Pacquiao will more than likely face either Bradley in a rematch, or Juan Manuel Marquez. I almost lost track how many times Manny and JMM have mixed it up, but the good news is that all of their past fights were closely fought battles.
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The fans aren’t very exicited about a Bradley rematch. There’s a bit more buzz for a Marquez fight. Even though with the amount of times Pacquiao and JMM have fought, there still seems to be some unfinished business. Every fight was very close, many feeling that JMM got robbed in a few of them. One would think that Manny Pacquiao would want to get one dominant win over Marquez. One would also think that JMM wants to knockout Pacquiao.
Cotto is an option but it looks more likely that he will face Mayweather Jr instead. He’s not completely out of the Pacquiao picture though.
Mayweather Vs. Pacquiao will possibly happen but not until Floyd gets at least one other fight out of the way first. Coming out of prison and going right into a fight Vs. Pacquiao probably isn’t a very good idea anyway.
I asked Arum about this the other day. I asked him if he felt good about Pacquiao and Mayweather later in 2012 or early 2013, “I feel real good about it” said Arum, ” I heard that Floyd has hired some smart people, more business type people and hopefully that can make a difference and we can get this fight made.”
Time will tell. The world of Pacquiao is never simple.
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