AFTER MANNY Pacquiao forged a seven-fight deal with Oscar dela Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, you’d think that Top Rank’s Bob Arum’s days as a major player in the Filipino’s career would be over after the rubber match with Erik Morales on Nov. 18?
Apparently that would not be the case as Arum dropped hints that it’s not yet over between him and Pacquiao.
Arum told fight scribe Gregory Leon of boxingtalk.net in an interview yesterday that “at the end of the day, I am convinced that win or lose, Manny Pacquiao’s next fight and fights after that will be under the banner of Top Rank, that’s all I can say. I can’t say how, why, what and so forth that’s all I can say.”
For sure, he still has an ace up in his sleeve. And that’s also the reason why he’s not taking that “setback” sitting down.
Arum was beaten to the punch by Dela Hoya in the race to sign up Pacquiao, one of the fight game’s most attractive performers.
Morales, Arum’s fair-haired boy, will conduct a public weigh-in at the Salon Insurgente III at the Hotel Gran Melia in downtown Mexico City on Friday afternoon (Saturday morning in Manila) as mandated by the World Boxing Council.
“Never listen to the promoter. On Friday, Erik Morales will be holding a major press conference. We are catering and inviting the press, and Erik will step on a calibrated scale and I think all of the weight issues will disappear as a result of that weigh-in,” said Arum, who played an instrumental role in bringing the Thrilla in Manila to the Araneta Coliseum.
“Again the proof of the pudding is in the eating, you got to see it. We are a month out and I believe you are going to be pleased with Morales,” said Arum, who is so thrilled with the incredible response of the public on the scheduled 12-rounder that takes place at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas. Tickets, priced at 0, 0, 0, 0 and are selling briskly and Arum revealed that last week over 10,000 tickets have been purchased and he expects a huge turnout on fight night since Top Rank averages 1,000 pops a week.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles-based dentist Ed dela Vega, a regular contributor to Pacquiao’s website mannypacquiao.ph, took pictures of the famed puncher with a newly-bought brand new Mercedes Benz SL 550, a 382 horsepower 5.5-liter V8 road luxury vehicle at the parking lot of the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood.
Pacquiao also owns a Lincoln Navigator and a Porsche Cayenne, which has reportedly been shipped to the country, and top-of-the-line models of Mitsubishi Pajero, Nissan Murano and a big white van that he frequently uses while in Manila.
