After all the talk and all the back and forth negotiations, the odd man out is Manny Pacquiao. The initial negotiations started with Barrera-Pacquiao, turned into Morales-Pacquiao and has ended with Barrera-Morales. Several insiders have told me that they feel that both Bob Arum and Golden Boy Promotions never had intentions of having their fighters face Pacquiao, they feel that the talks which took place with Pacquiao’s promoter were nothing but a leverage swerve to use against eachother in order to get a Morales-Barrera 3 fight done. Both Arum and Golden Boy knew Morales would be moving up to 135 pounds after his next fight, if there was ever going to be a Barrera-Morales 3, it had to be now. There was a last minute holdout by Barrera who eventually accepted the financial terms for the rubber match.
BoxingScene: Why did you guys choose to go with Marco Antonio Barrera instead of Manny Pacquiao?
Bob Arum: The fact of the matter is both fighters (Barrera & Morales) expressed the desire to fight eachother. Both men were calling for the fight to happen. This is the fight that fans want to see. In terms of money, its the biggest fight out there for both men and the right time to make this fight happen.
Arum went to futher tell BoxingScene that if Barrera would not have agreed to the financial terms of the third fight with Morales, they would have went with plan B, a November 6th pay per view date with Pacquiao.
If Morales beats Barrera, a Barrera-Pacquiao rematch would lose plenty of luster. The match that people would want to see next is Morales take on Pacquiao, with Morales moving up to 135 pounds after his next fight, the prospect of that happening now is very low.
Should Barrera beat Morales, the hype for a Barrera-Pacquiao rematch would be huge and would make that fight much bigger when it comes to money and public demand.
