Is Bob Arum Trying to Promote Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. Solo?

As soon as Manny Pacquiao won his decision against Juan Manuel Marquez earlier this month, promoter Bob Arum began talking about a fourth fight between the men. One could call it a leverage play by Arum, who may have been upset that Floyd Mayweather Jr. was trying to control negotiations by booking the MGM on May 5th. Floyd called out Manny Pacquiao, making it seem like the perfect lead-in to the megafight. The only problem is Arum seemed to be reluctant to negotiate it.

That’s a serious problem because both Manny Pacquiao and his trainer, Freddie Roach, want Floyd Mayweather. The only person who seemed to not want the fight was Bob Arum. Even one of Manny’s coaches, Alex Ariza, said that. But does Arum not want Manny to fight Floyd, or is he just trying to control the promotion of the fight? Either case could be possible.

The New York Daily News reported Sunday that Pacquiao’s agent, Michael Koncz, stopped by Mayweather’s gym in Las Vegas. Arum confirmed the meeting. Arum also says he’s been negotiating with investors regarding the potential mega-fight.

So what is Arum’s motivation — assuming that he genuinely is trying to arrange this fight? He probably wants to promote the bout solo to keep Golden Boy Promotions, which has been contracted to promote Floyd’s last few fights, out of the picture.

The beef with the other large promotional company in boxing is nothing new; Arum has one of the most popular fighters in the world and he’s reluctant to share him (in a business sense) with anyone else. That’s why Arum has set Manny up with other Top Rank fighters his last several fights — so he could collect the full promotional commission from Pac Man’s bouts. It looks like he’s trying to do the same thing here.

Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer is panicking and saying that Arum does not want the fight. He believes Arum is trying to use the Koncz-Mayweather negotiation as leverage to make Juan Manuel Marquez drop his price tag for a fourth fight.

It’s hard to know what to believe anymore, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Arum were trying to cut out Golden Boy. I’m pretty much at the point where I don’t care what happens behind the scenes, so long as we finally get to see these two superstars fight.

Here is a full history of the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. negotiations.