AND so, Manny Pacquiao will stay with American Bob Arum until 2016. Pacquiao ensured that by signing an extension of his contract making Arum as his fight promoter for two more years.
I can only say, hep-hep hooray!
For, although I had consistently harped on a Pacquiao retirement all this time, I sort of now decide to make a U-turn, quickly at that, in my position if only because the contract renewal would virtually torpedo a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight. But that?s going ahead of the story.
First, a quick flashback.
Pacquiao and Arum started partnering together officially in 2006, after Pacquiao knocked Erik Morales out in Las Vegas. That second successive knockout in a year?s time after Pacquiao lost on points to Morales in 2005 in their first of three fights virtually sent ?El Terible? to retirement.
That 2006 pact would soon make Pacquiao a billionaire, the first Filipino athlete? and Asian for that matter ? to establish the feat. In no time, too, their bond made Pacquiao a world celebrity to merit him a dream-come-true audience with President Obama at the White House. Amazingly also, he would become the face of world boxing in the mold of heavyweight legend Muhammad Ali. No boxer below the heavyweight division has achieved such stature. Magazines of international reputation, like Time, made him their cover stories. Tita Cory was the only Filipino other than Pacquiao to have earned the rare honor of gracing the cover of Time in recent memory.
Now, how come a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight got knocked out following the contract renewal between Pacquiao and Arum this week?
Well, to those not in the know, Mayweather has said time and again that he will never fight Pacquiao for as long as Arum remains in Pacquiao?s camp. To him, Arum is to be avoided like the bubonic plague.
But such disrespect for a boxing icon has not hurt Arum one bit. In fact, in a show of unending wisdom, Arum has also repeatedly said he was always open to talks leading to a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight that now seems headed to purgatory.
Thank you, PacMan, for having just made Mayweather history in your resume.
