By Michael Collins: While it seems that Top Rank promoter Bob Arum isn’t too excited about matching his fighter WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao up with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in May, Arum also doesn’t appear to want Mayweather fighting one of his guys WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto. Arum told the Manila Standard “They are not going to get him [Cotto].”
Arum doesn’t like the May 5th Pacquiao-Mayweather fight for a several reason. A. Pacquiao’s cut right eyebrow won’t be ready by then says Arum; 2. The MGM Grand is too small and an outdoor 45,000 seat arena won’t be ready until the end of May; C. There won’t be enough time to promote the fight if it takes place on May 5th.
Arum instead is interested in matching Pacquiao up with one of the four fighters he’s picked out. Instead of matching Pacquiao with Mayweather in May, Arum is looking at November as the date for a Mayweather-Pacquiao mega fight. That would give Arum an entire five months to promote the fight, although the fight really promotes itself and doesn’t need nearly as much marketing as you would think. It’s pretty clear that Arum really wants Pacquiao to fight one of the four guys – Timothy Bradley, Miguel Cotto, Lamont Peterson and Juan Manuel Marquez – for June.
Whoever he picks, it’s a guaranteed big payday for Pacquiao without the risk that he would have in a fight with Mayweather Additionally, it’s money that might no longer be there once Pacquiao fights Mayweather and gets exposed. I like to think of it as Pacquiao getting a last payday before he gets a pay cut because it might be hard for fans to want to pay to see a guy that’s not a champion and was soundly beaten after Mayweather fights him.
Arum likely doesn’t want Mayweather to fight Cotto because Arum has plans for Cotto and he likely doesn’t want Mayweather to beat him before he realizes those plans. It’s no secret that Arum wants to put Cotto back in with Pacquiao for a nice in house fight. The two fought in 2009 and it brought in excellent pay per view numbers.
Arum obviously wants to see them fight again, even if a lot of boxing fans are turned off by the idea of seeing another mismatch between Cotto and Pacquiao. Last time they fought, Pacquiao completely dominated Cotto for 11 rounds before taking him out in the 12th. Arum wants to match Cotto against another one of his fighters WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in 2012. That fight could happen in the summer.