BOB Arum rides again!
I read in the papers quoting Arum, Manny Pacquiao?s American promoter, as saying he doesn?t want Floyd Mayweather Jr. as Pacquiao?s next foe.
Arum was reacting to reports the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight might still materialize despite numerous pronouncements earlier that the bout everyone wants to see would never ever happen.
Of all people, it was Mayweather who reopened the idea of staging the fight.
Mayweather said the prospect of a Pacquiao-Mayweather happening in 2014 ?is possible.?
Pacquiao bit the bait but he qualified his statement by saying, ?I am willing to fight anyone that Bob Arum wants me to fight.?
That?s one good thing about Pacquiao. He always respects Arum when it comes to who would be his final opponent.
Following Pacquiao?s 12-round destruction of Brandon Rios in November in a fight that is now called as the Macau Mauling since Rios was virtually routed in all 12 rounds of the one-sided bout, Arum has only mentioned Tim Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez as Pacquiao?s possible foes.
No Mayweather.
Provodnikov had been mentioned but Pacquiao immediately gunned down the idea.
?No, not Provodnikov as he has become my good friend,? Pacquiao was quoted as saying.
Provodnikov has been Pacquiao?s long-time spar mate.
Through the years, Pacquiao has made himself known as a ?softie,? on and off the ring. Meaning, for all his ferociousness, he has a heart for fighters he loves to batter.
Weird?
Maybe. But can you fault the guy for having an uncanny trait?
Say what you want to say but to me, Pacquiao, if he were not born in abject poverty, would not have been a boxer with a mean punch.
Do you know that as a child, Pacquiao dreamed of becoming a priest?
Maybe, that?s the reason he has a marshmallow for a heart.
So that even if he has been badmouthed by Mayweather a lot of times already, he keeps no rancor in his heart to this day.
Maybe, if they finally fight, he?d raise up Mayweather the minute he knocked out the loudmouth.
