By Rob Smith: When asked if we could be seeing a future fifth fight between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum couldn’t rule it out, saying this during Tuesday’s telephone conference call: “There is a possibility. [Sugar Ray] Robinson and [Jake] Lamotta fought six time.”
Watching Pacquiao and Marquez fight for a fifth time is kind of scary because it seems like the fight has been played out too many times and is little more than just a money grab at this point. Both guys are showing signs of fading and it’s not nearly as interesting now to see them still fighting each other. It’s as if Arum has fought something that works and he doesn’t want to look to fight other bouts for his fighter Pacquiao.
For the hardcore fans there’s a sense of fatigue that has set in for watching the Pacquiao vs. Marquez fight. However, for the casual boxing fans they don’t seem to mind because it’s always new for them. They’re the ones that are keeping the Pacquiao-Marquez match-up alive by purchasing the fight on PPV in high enough numbers that Arum wants to keep going back to the troth over and over.
It makes it easier for Arum to keep putting Pacquiao in with Marquez in that he doesn’t have any other alternatives other than Miguel Cotto and Floyd Mayweather Jr. However, the Cotto fight is a difficult one to put together because he was burned once with a catchweight fight with Pacquiao and he’s not eager to get burned again. And Arum hasn’t had much luck in matching Pacquiao up with Mayweather Jr, and that’s something that will likely continue to be a problem for the remainder of Pacquiao’s career.
he only guaranteed big fights that Arum can match Pacquiao up with are Cotto and Marquez. We just saw Arum try to deviate from that course by putting Pacquiao in with Tim Bradley, and the results were less than impressive PPV numbers and a loss for Pacquiao. Now it’s back to Marquez as opponent.