Murad Muhammad, in some ways, reminds one of Don King. He’s a boxing promoter who can go on and on at a news conference, and he’s boastful. “What I tried to explain to my kid, he is not a pay-per-view fighter, nor should he be making close to $2 million for a single fight,” Muhammad said last week. “But I pull miracles.”
His “kid” is Manny Pacquiao, pride of the Philippines. Pacquiao will take on Erik Morales in a 12-round junior lightweight fight Saturday at MGM Grand in Las Vegas. HBO pay-per-view will televise.
The miracle began when Juan Manuel Marquez, the World Boxing Association and International Boxing Federation featherweight champion, refused to accept $750,000 to fight Pacquiao in a rematch of their fight last May 8, a 12-round draw.
Pacquiao had agreed to take the same money, but when Marquez balked, Muhammad and Bob Arum, who promotes Morales and Marquez, hooked up and created Saturday’s fight.
It is a highly anticipated bout because of Morales’ popularity and the downright explosiveness of Pacquiao, whose big claim to fame is an 11th-round knockout of Marco Antonio Barrera in November 2003.
“Erik Morales does 200,000 (pay-per-view) homes without us,” Muhammad said. “Erik Morales did 350,000 with the legend Barrera, which means Barrera only brought in a hundred-and-some-odd thousand homes.
“Here is a kid (Pacquiao) who is unknown to pay-per-view, but what makes it different is this is not a Latino fight. It’s an international fight, and that’s what it is going to make this a great pay-per-view.”
Muhammad said he used this in his pitch to Arum during negotiations.
“I told the old fox, ‘You have been making money in just the Latino world, now I am bringing you the Filipino world and the rest of the world,’ ” Muhammad said. “That is how we got the fight.”
Morales, 28, of Tijuana, is 47-2 with 34 knockouts. Pacquiao, 26, is 39-2-2 with 30 knockouts.
Rooster fighter: Pacquiao held an open workout last week at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, where he is trained by Hall of Famer Freddie Roach. It was no surprise to hear that in the Philippines, where cockfighting is legal, Pacquiao has a stable of 500 fighting roosters.
Pacquiao at times has looked like a vicious rooster in tearing apart an opponent. Barrera could attest to that. He was dropped by Pacquiao in the third and 11th rounds before being stopped. Pacquiao was leading Barrera by seven, seven and nine points on the scorecards.
Considering how good Barrera was, and still is, victories don’t come much more impressive. That makes one wonder about Pacquiao’s fight with Marquez. He decked Marquez three times in the first round but could not put on the finishing touches.
That Marquez survived the round was a show of true grit. That he came back to earn a draw and retain his titles was nearly miraculous. Pacquiao did not want to talk much about that at the workout. He did remind reporters that he suffered a hand injury in the first round.
“That’s in the past. I don’t really want to think about that fight,” Pacquiao said. “I believe I won that fight, but I just chalk it up to experience.”
Foe doesn’t matter: Much has been made about this fight being a great Mexican against a great Filipino, but Pacquiao said he couldn’t care less about that.
“I don’t care who my opponent is, whether he is Mexican or anything else,” said Pacquiao. His preparation for this fight has been the longest of his career, three months.
Solid undercard: The semi-main event could be a dandy. Martin Castillo (27-1, 16 KOs) of Mexico will defend his WBA super flyweight belt against Eric Morel (35-1, 18 KOs) of Puerto Rico.
Jorge Arce (38-3-1, 28 KOs) of Mexico and Hussein Hussein (26-1, 20 KOs) of Australia will square off for the interim World Boxing Council flyweight championship, and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (16-0, 11 KOs) of Mexico will be featured in a six-round lightweight fight.
Toney-Ruiz: James “Lights Out” Toney would be doing everyone who likes this sport a favor by ridding it of John Ruiz once and for all.
They signed last week to duke it out for Ruiz’s WBA heavyweight belt. The date and site are still to be determined, but we’re looking at May or June, and Staples Center is one of the venues being considered.
Ruiz has one of the all-time awful styles, and it is almost impossible to watch him for a round or two, let alone 12. If Toney is victorious — he is expected to win easily — we can hope that Ruiz will never get another title shot.
Toney, incidentally, picks Pacquiao by knockout in the middle rounds.
Gatti-Mayweather: Arum and Muhammad are hoping there are as many as 400,000 pay-per-view buys for Saturday’s Morales-Pacquiao fight. Arum said Thursday that he is looking to get as many as 500,000 buys for Arturo Gatti-Floyd Mayweather Jr. on June 25 in Atlantic City.
“We feel this fight has the potential of doing between 400,000, maybe 500,000 buys,” said Arum, who promotes Mayweather. “Our projections show that (Gatti) is extremely popular with a very large fan base.”
That, coupled with Mayweather’s bad-boy image, should be a good recipe for pay-per-view success.
Robert Morales covers boxing for the Daily News. His column appears Mondays. He can be reached at (626) 962-8811, Ext. 2313, or [email protected]
