Arum rules out Mayweather-Pacquiao rematch

By Dan Ambrose: If you were hoping that Manny Pacquiao’s one-sided 12 round unanimous decision win over WBO welterweight champion Jessie Vargas last night would lead to a rematch between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr., then I have some bad news for you. It’s not happening. Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum said to the media last Saturday night that as far as he’s concerned, Mayweather is retired.

Arum says that Pacquiao’s next opponent will come from this list: Terence Crawford, Vasyl Lomachenko, and possibly Danny Garcia or Keith Thurman. Arum seemed to give a hint in how he plans on attempting to match Pacquiao against next by naming Crawford first followed by Lomachenko. Both of those fighters are in Arum’s Top Rank stable. Thurman and Garcia are with another promoter.

Mayweather attended Pacquiao’s fight against Vargas last Saturday night and sat at ringside. This fueled speculation that Mayweather might choose to fight Pacquiao in the near future. However, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen according to Arum. Mayweather didn’t mention wanting to fight Pacquiao again to him despite him reportedly making contact with the Top Rank headquarters about him attending the fight on Saturday night.

It would be in Pacquiao and Arum’s best interest in fighting Mayweather again, but it doesn’t appear that he’s interested in fighting Pacquiao a second time. Mayweather already easily beat Pacquiao a year ago in May 2015, and he doesn’t seem all that interested in fighting him again.

“You’ll have to ask (Floyd),” Arum said via RingTV. “As far as we’re concerned, he’s retired. What do you want me to do? You want me to make things up? Floyd is retired, period. Off the cuff, I would say Terence Crawford, Vasyl Lomachenko and maybe Danny Garcia or Keith Thurman,” Arum said.

I’d be very surprised if the 37-year-old Pacquiao fights Danny Garcia or Thurman in his next fight. I think it’s pretty obvious that Pacquiao will likely wind up facing Terence Crawford next. He’s a guy that Arum has been interested in matching against Pacquiao for a while now. You can argue that Pacquiao would be taking one for the Top Rank team by fighting Crawford by doing his promoter Arum a big favor.

It’s a bad match-up for Pacquiao. Crawford is a slick fighter with punching power. He’s not another Mayweather like some boxing fans say. Crawford can be hit, and more dependent on his legs to keep him from getting hit rather than having reflexes like Mayweather to get out of the way of shots. The thing is, Pacquiao has lost so much form his game at this point. He doesn’t look like he;’s got the skills to do the job against a guy like Crawford. Pacquiao doesn’t cut off the ring well, and his once high work rate has dropped off dramatically. Against Vargas last Saturday night, Pacquiao looked like he couldn’t pull the trigger on his shots.

You can forget about a fight between Pacquiao and Lomachenko happening anything soon if ever. The 28-year-old WBO super featherweight champion Lomachenko said last week that he wouldn’t be available to fight Pacquiao for at least one year. Lomachenko feels that he needs a year to bulk up in weight to get ready for the Pacquiao fight. He doesn’t want to be the smaller guy that Pacquiao. There’s not a lot of size that separates the two fighters. Both are 5’6”, and Pacquiao is just a little heavier. Never the less, Lomachenko is not ready to fight Pacquiao, and you can’t force him to take the fight with him.

Pacquiao lost to Mayweather last year by a 12 round decision in a fight that made a lot of money for both fighters. It’s thought that if the two of them face eah other in the future in a rematch, then their fight would bring in at least half the amount of money they made last year. That would still be a huge payday for both fighters, and a lot of money to be pumped into Top Rank. It would be in Arum’s best interest to let Pacquiao to fight Mayweather again.
“Whoever the people want me to fight, I will fight,” Pacquiao said.

It’s not about who the boxing fans want Pacquiao to fight next. The fans are not going to be the ones who decide who Pacquiao fights next. It’s never been the fans. If it were the fans, then Pacquiao wouldn’t have fought Tim Bradley for a third time last April. If it were the fans, then Pacquiao wouldn’t have fought Chris Algieri in 2014 and Brandon Rios in 2013. It’s not the fans who choose Pacquiao’s opponents. It’s Arum who is thought to be the decider in who he fights.

Pacquiao can probably beat Lomachenko and Danny Garcia, but he’s clearly not going to beat Crawford or Thurman. If Arum matches Pacquiao up against Crawford, he might be destroying the golden goose that lays the eggs for his promotional company. That doesn’t seem like a smart move on Arum’s part to make that fight. Look at it this way.

If Pacquiao loses to Crawford, then he’ll likely retire from boxing. Once Pacquiao is gone, Arum won’t have the golden goose for the pay-per-view money that he’s been pumping into his Top Rank company for the past eight years. Crawford isn’t going to be able to step in as Arum’s new pay-per-view guy. If the 84-year-old promoter believes that Crawford is going to be turned into a PPV attraction by beating Pacquiao, then someone needs to talk some sense to him. It’s not going to happen.

Tim Bradley didn’t turn into a pay-per-view fighter after he beat Pacquiao and neither did Juan Manuel Marquez. You have to have a style and/or charisma that the boxing fans want to see. Crawford doesn’t appear to have that, which is why Arum will be making a bad move by matching Pacquiao against Crawford. The fight won’t make a lot of money like a fight between Pacquiao and someone else.

If Pacquiao is going to lose to someone, then Arum needs to make sure he loses to someone that will be able to bring the most money possible on PPV. Crawford isn’t the guy for that. He’s only popular in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska. Lomachenko isn’t the guy. He’s from Ukraine and is an unknown to the casual boxing fans. If arum has his mind made up that he’s going to match Pacquiao against Crawford or Lomachenko next, then there’s nothing you can do but watch the fight take place and see the event implode on PPV.

The aftermath of Pacquiao losing the fight to Crawford or Lomachenko will likely see Pacquiao retiring, and Arum’s Top Rank Company left with one successor. To be sure, Arum can force feed the boxing public Crawford on pay-per-view in hopes that he’ll start bringing in buys like Pacquiao used to, but I don’t see it happening. That would be news.

Crawford hasn’t show the potential to be a pay-per-view fighter, and a win over Pacquiao probably going to change that at all. It’ll just likely send Pacquiao into retirement, and leave Top Rank without any pay-per-view attraction to fill the void. Top Rank has some good fighters like Lomachenko, Crawford and Oscar Valdez.

The problem is none of those guys have the potential to be PPV fighters. They’re just regular champions without the popularity needed to get to the next level. Lomachenko and Valdez would be potential PPV fighters if they fought at welterweight, but they’re in the wrong divisions. They fight at featherweight and super featherweight. The boxing public hasn’t shown interest in the past to want to pay to see featherweights in the main events when it comes to pay-per-view. I doubt that the fans are going to want to start.