by Ronnie Nathanielsz

 

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum believes that if “Fighter of the Decade” Manny Pacquiao shows that he’s back in his “Clash in Cotai” against Brandon “Bam Bam” Rios in Macau on November 24  then a fight against pound for pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr can happen.

Arum was guest on Australia’s 1116  SEN Radio on the program “Evenings with Mark Fine” which on Mondays also features well-known Australian boxing promoter Peter Maniatis.

Arum said “The only major impediment is that Mayweather  now fights for Showtime and Manny for HBO” but cited a precedent “when they had the same situation years ago where Lennox Lewis was an HBO fighter and Mile Tyson fought for Showtime.”

He noted that the two networks “came together and shared responsibilities of promoting the pay per view and it worked out really well.”

Arum feels that “if Manny demonstrates that he’s back and there’s a public outcry, we should be able to get it done.” 

The astute promoter made it clear that “the public doesn’t want to know about backroom strategies and negotiations. They just want to see the two guys get into the ring, fighting each other.”

Arum said a possible date may be in the second half of 2014.

He maintained that a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight “would be great for boxing and its hard to justify if it doesn’t happen” pointing out that “the best tennis players play each other, the best soccer teams play each other and in American football the two best teams from each conference face each other in the SuperBowl.”

Arum said “there is no reason” not to make a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight happen and if it doesn’t happen “it looks bad for boxing.”