By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Top Rank’s Bob Arum, perhaps the most astute promoter in the boxing business says talk about Filipino ring idol Manny Pacquiao fighting Juan Manuel Marquez, Ricky Hatton or even Floyd Mayweather Jr “is just ludicrous at this point because the job at hand is the fight with Oscar De La Hoya.”
In an overseas telephone conversation with insidesports.ph, Manila Standard and Viva Sports, Arum pointed out that the December 6 fight against De La Hoya is “far from a tune-up fight.” He said if it was a tune-up fight then you could look at who your next opponent is going to be but this is not a tune-up fight. This is a very tough, very hard fight and addressing the issue of who the next opponent will be is ludicrous at this point.”
Arum said that if Pacquiao is successful in the showdown with “The Golden Boy” there may be “opponents out there far more lucrative and far more interesting than Marquez. Floyd Mayweather Jr may come out of retirement or Ricky Hatton. Who knows, who knows what the future is going to bring.”
Arum emphasized that right now he wants “to focus everybody’s attention on De La Hoya.” When asked about those who claim Pacquiao is avoiding Marquez Arum replied , “that’s all bullshit.”
The Top Rank promoter didn’t close the door to a third fight with Marquez in the future. He said “we will look around after the De La Hoya fight and if we decide that the most lucrative fight, the best fight out there for him (Pacquiao) is Marquez, that’s the fight we are going to make.”
Arum said Pacquiao failed to fly to Las Vegas for a dinner where the promoter received a prestigious award as a inductee to the “Gaming Hall-of-Fame” which includes individuals such as eminent casino and resort hotel owner Steve Wynn and entertainers like the late Frank Sinatra.
Arum said there were fears that Pacquiao was getting the flu and they didn’t want to take a chance and agreed “that was a good idea.” He also said he also supported the appeal of Pacquiao for people to stay away from him during his ten week training grind so he won’t contact any ailment which could set back his efforts to be in the best shape of his life for the De La Hoya megabuck fight.
Eager to get into fighting form as soon as possible Pacquiao who skipped training the previous day and didn’t take the flight to Las Vegas showed up at celebrated trainer Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym (Thursday, Manila Time) . Despite Pacquiao’s appeal for the fans to stay away Dong Secuya of philboxing.com reported that the gym was “teeming with people all morning” but that when Pacquiao arrived shortly after 2:00 p.m. the gym was cleared as Roach had promised earlier.
Pacquiao went through a light workout on the speed ball, did some shadow boxing and worked on the punch-mitts with Roach.
