It has been a few days since the Morales-Pacquiao swerve by Top Rank and fans of Manny Pacquiao are still outraged. Emails have been flying into me by the hour from Philippine boxing fans that can’t understand why Arum and Morales would swerve the fans and the Pacquiao camp. The answer is simple, M-O-N-E-Y! Bob Arum, just like any other promoter, is a salesman. Arum uses whatever methods he has to in order to make or break a fight. The initial talks began between Golden Boy and Murad Muhammad for a Barrera-Pacquiao pay per view rematch in November. The talks fell apart due to Barrera’s unhappiness with his overall end of the money. Arum knew that the biggest selling fight he could make for Erik Morales before he went up to 135 pounds is a third meeting with Barrera. Arum knew that he had to act fast and jump in the mix in order to break up any chance of a Barrera-Pacquiao rematch happening. Arum knew that if Barrera lost in a Pacquiao rematch, the appeal of a third meeting between Barrera and Morales would be very low. Arum also knew that the proposed bout for Morales against Joel Casamayor was not very profitable and at the same time, very risky to take.
Arum started talks with Pacquiao’s people to entice Golden Boy into the Morales sweepstakes. Arum even went as far agreeing in principle with Murad Muhammad to match Morales and Pacquiao on November 6th, 2004. Once Golden Boy saw Arum and Morales hyping a match with Pacquiao in the media and heard that HBO set a pay per view date aside for the fight, they were put into a position where they had to jump on a third meeting with Morales in order to secure a big money fight for Barrera. The amount of money involved in a third meeting between Barrera-Morales, overshadows the financial figures for a Morales-Pacquiao or Pacquiao-Barrera bout.
Both Barrera and Morales see this fight as an easier fight then Pacquiao with more money involved at the end of the rainbow and that made it an easy decision for both men to take this fight. It was much easier on Barrera’s end since he knew Morales would be moving to 135 after his next fight. Morales feels that Barrera is on the decline and now is his chance to get avenge his only loss and put Barrera away. Morales in a interview conducted with BoxingScene right after Barrera’s win over Ayala, put down Barrera’s comeback win by saying that he was not impressed. Barrera on the other hand feels that he has Erik Morales’ number, he thinks that he just has that inner edge over Morales and will beat him every time the two men fight.
Now comes Manny Pacquiao, used as a pawn to create a third meeting between Barrera and Morales and left with no big name opponent to face in his next fight. Although we may see Pacquiao face Injin Chi or Larios in his next fight, the Philippine fan still wanted a Morales-Pacquiao showdown. The Philippine-Mexican rivalry is at an all-time high with boxing fans of both countries battling on boxing forums all over the Internet. In the last 48 hours, I have received nothing but pro-Barrera emails from Pacquiao fans rooting for Barrera to take Morales apart.
As we all know, Morales is moving to 135 after his bout with Barrera and in the process, killing any chance of facing Pacquiao in the near future as Morales would now be two weight divisions above Pacman. Philippine fans all know that if Barrera beats Morales, the next logical bout he will seek will be against Pacquiao. By beating Morales, Barrera will be right back on the list of boxing’s pound for pound best and will make a Pacquiao rematch a much bigger fight then it is at the moment in terms of hype and the money involved.
Barrera taking the third meeting with Morales makes the best business sense when looking at it from Marco’s point of view. He feels that he will beat Morales and make a huge payday, he will use that win over Morales to make another huge payday by way of a rematch with Pacquiao. Now if Marco beats Pacquiao, he can make even more money by eventually setting up a rubber match with Pacman. If Marco took the Pacquiao rematch now and lost, the third bout with Morales would be dead and he would also make less money in the end. By facing Morales next, even if he gets beat, the prospect of a rematch with Pacquiao is still there and it leaves him with two big paydays instead of one.
The eyes of Philippine fans will all be focused on the third meeting between Barrera and Morales as a Barrera win would be like an early Christmas gift for Pac fans. Barrera has a Mexican ego, he will not let the Pacquiao loss go. He came back to boxing in order to avenge the loss and you can bet the house that if he beats Morales, he will be calling the Pacquaio camp for the revenge match in early 2005.
