By Cliff Rold
To hear Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer tell it, Manny Pacquiao must be a man of great internal honesty. To hear Schaefer tell it, Manny has to have looked deep into his soul and recognized his own flaws, his own impending doom.
Pacquiao doesn’t want, and didn’t take when he could have, a third fight with now crowned Lightweight champion of the World Juan Manuel Marquez.
He fled the challenge.
He took the easy way out.
Okay, maybe it wasn’t stated in such grandiose terms, but the terms used are just as rich. Their wealth springs not from what has been said, but from what hasn’t. BoxingScene regulars have followed the bouncing links (check em’ out; they’re all still up) this week as a sort of war of words has broken out between GBP’s lead spokesman and one Manny Pacquiao.
Let’s recap the highlights.
1. “There’s no way Bob Arum and Pacquiao are going to fight him again,” Schaefer was quoted as saying by Kevin Iole. “I don’t think Pacquiao wants anything to do with Juan Manuel Marquez any more."
2. “I’m willing to fight him any time. But since I will be the promoter, he must first accept all the conditions I will ask including a smaller purse [for him]," Pacquiao said. “If he agrees to the conditions, I know he is fighting for honor and I will fight him. If not, he’s only after getting big purse."
3. "The money for Pacquiao-Marquez fight is there so it cannot be the money. Manny knows he could have made more money fighting Juan Manuel Marquez, far more money, than he made by fighting David Diaz in his last fight…I believe he knows Juan Manuel Marquez has his number and that he will beat him again. So he is going to try to find different fights, different avenues. Now he has the opportunity to go in with the most popular fighter in the world, Oscar De La Hoya, so yes, he is going to jump at that opportunity…Is he going to win, is he going to lose? Irrespective of that, no doubt he will move down. He is not going to stay at 147 pounds and Juan Manuel Marquez will be waiting for him," Schaefer said. "I think a lot of it depends on what the outcome will be with the Oscar fight. If he will get knocked out badly by Oscar he may look for an easier fight. If he wins he may look for a fight with Ricky Hatton."
Any time a fighter starts talking about purse disparities (in their favor), take it for granted they aren’t in a hurry for a particular fight. Schaefer isn’t wrong to suggest Pacquiao isn’t looking for Marquez; he’s just talking around the best reasons why.
And he’s leaving out an important, “…and thank God for that” in regards to Pacquiao’s choices.
Or maybe it should be a more focused “…and thank God for Golden Boy’s coffers.”
After all, Pacquiao not fighting Marquez has lead directly to a fight with someone held in great esteem at GBP (and for once it’s not a risk, despite the danger of ass-u-me, to assume the guy the company is named after, “Golden Boy” Oscar De La Hoya, is held in high esteem). If Pacquiao hadn’t gone there, he was headed towards GBP’s second biggest rainmaker, World Jr. Welterweight champion Ricky Hatton. There’s only one Ricky Hatton after all, and he produces at least one more zero than Marquez.
Let’s figure on the low end that De La Hoya-Pacquiao just does Oscar-Trinidad numbers….that’s still in the neighborhood of three times as many pay-per-view buys as Pacquiao did with Marquez last March. And considering how prohibitively favored, on size alone, Oscar will be over Pacquiao, how much concern can GBP really have for the lost Pacquiao-Marquez III?
The promoter, face and star fighter of GBP is in the safest possible huge money fight with the chance of softening up a big player for their other guys and there’s room to complain? Schaefer being quoted as saying Pacquiao could have had Marquez instead of David Diaz is fine enough, but given the gold at the end of this box of Lucky Charms, can GBP really sad about the course of events?
The bottom line is that Schaefer, Oscar, hell, the GBP janitor hoping for a holiday bonus, are probably all just fine with what Manny’s chosen. In the economic pecking order, Marquez falls so far behind De La Hoya and Hatton it’s almost like a symbolic attempt to overcome a three-knockdown deficit. What GBP is doing, and it’s smart, is keeping chapter III alive while doing the bigger Manny business first. To say Manny doesn’t want to fight one GBP fighter while hyping one signed and one possible fight against bigger (physically and economically) names in the stable is just ridiculous enough to be happening in Boxing.
In GBP’s best case scenario, Manny loses to Oscar, then fights Marquez and maybe Hatton after Oscar gets a taste of Manchester for whatever money is left in the universe. In their lesser-but-still-profitable case scenario, Manny beats Oscar, then moves on to Hatton and finishes with Marquez. Not so ironically, these are all scenarios Pacquiao, his reps at Top Rank, and their accountants and janitors can sink their teeth into as well.
So let the hollow war of words cease, or at least cease any semblance of being taken seriously. After all, it could raise questions about other things, like why Nate Campbell isn’t being seriously touted as a Marquez opponent.
Now there’s a war or words worth listening too.
Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com