By Jose Luis Camarillo, Miguel Rivera, notifight.com
Former four division world champion Juan Manuel Marquez has a lot of options. Promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank was in Mexico and meetings were held between Arum, Marquez and promoter Fernando Beltran of Zanfer Promotions.
The target for Arum is a fifth fight between Pacquiao and Marquez for the fall. If a deal is not reached, and then Pacquiao and Marquez go in their separate directions, there will be several opponents considered for both - including the winners of several upcoming fights being promoted by Top Rank - and the options include Timothy Bradley, Ruslan Provodnikov, Brandon Rios, Jessie Vargas and Mike Alvarado.
"Juan Manuel understands the business of boxing. A boxer is worth what he produces, and of course if there is a big fight in store for him he is going to make a lot of money," Arum said.
"We'll discuss things with Juan Manuel for his next fight. I agree that for this year a fifth fight between Manny Pacquiao and Marquez is a priority. There is the possibility [of doing it in] Macao or in the Mexico City Arena. There is also the option Marquez and Pacquiao going against Timothy Bradley and Brandon Rios - of course if they win the fights they have scheduled in the coming weeks. Regarding Marquez's purse [for a fifth Pacquiao fight], the only thing that I can say is it will be better than what it was in December."
Regarding his ability to perform at a high level, Arum says the media should not pay attention to the age of Marquez, who turns 40-years-old in July.
"When someone talks about age, you have to remember I was the one who promoted George Foreman when he won the heavyweight title at 45 years of age. Age is just a number, just look at me," Arum said.
