Despite hearing nothing from Manny Pacquiao, other than his statement declaring that he would NOT be taking a leave of absence from his senate duties to return to the ring, the boxing media has been full of promoter Bob Arum telling the world that the Filipino icon would be returning to the ring this fall.
News report after news report has the aged promoter talking about how he?s scrambling to find a venue, settle on a date, and find an opponent. Arum has even gone so far as to set up a proposed training schedule that would have Manny beginning camp in the Philippines and then taking a leave of absence from the senate to finish camp in the States. Manny, of course, immediately set the record straight about the leave of absence, saying in no uncertain terms that nothing has even been discussed and that if he did come back, the training would have to be worked around his political responsibilities.
Bob Arum, though, seems laser-focused on pushing Manny back into the ring?and the sooner the better. But the question is why is he dead set on Manny?s return when, if the buzz is correct, he lost money on his last fight with Timothy Bradley and has struggled to make even a small profit in every recent bout, except the one with Floyd Mayweather?
The answer to this question is a simple, but ugly one. Arum wants to kill off Manny Pacquiao.
He doesn?t want to kill him, literally, of course. But what he does want to do is follow the age old boxing tradition of completely using up a fighter, wringing every possible red cent from him, and then using him as chum for the next wave of hungry young sharks.
As it is now, Manny retired pretty much on his own terms and fought who he wanted to fight in his last bout. He left money on the table for all parties involved and steadfastly refused to pass the torch by not even considering a bout with rising star and apple of Arum?s eye, Terence Crawford.
Arum realizes that one Pacquiao on Crawford?s resume is worth a dozen Ricky Burns or Viktor Postols. In boxing, it?s almost impossible to be the next big thing if you haven?t beaten the last big thing. And, for that to happen, Pacquiao has to keep fighting until he gets beaten up, defeated, and pushed into retirement.
Manny walking around as a ?free? man, unwilling to hurt himself to build up his promoter?s business interests is an affront to Arum?s instinct as an old school boxing guy. For that reason, Arum will do everything in his power to bring Manny Pacquiao back to active duty.
Manny, in turn, has to decide whether he will fall into the boxing trap so many other stars have fallen into or if he will keep true to himself and his own well-being by only fighting on his own terms.
