IS Bob Arum still the American promoter of Manny Pacquiao?
I guess so.
But if really true, that does not mean Pacquiao cannot promote his own fight.
That is why PacMan is promoting his fight with Lucas Matthysse on July 15. In so doing, he has not violated anything regarding his business relationship with Arum.
Otherwise, Arum would have raised hell the minute the Kuala Lumpur bout first hit the headlines.
No one can ever outwit Arum, the quintessential boxing man for more than 60 years now.
So clever and adroit Arum is that he is king of boxing for life; not even his successor has seen the light of day.
The Pacquiao-Arum partnership was essentially forged sometime in 2006 after Pacquiao had stopped Erik Morales in three rounds in Las Vegas, giving PacMan a 2-1 edge in their trilogy.
I know.
I saw how Arum bumped off Oscar De La Hoya out of Pacquiao’s radar that year at Wynn’s Hotel in Vegas.
I was there.
The partnership has not had any wrinkle since.
But what’s this I hear that Arum is spreading doubts about the Pacquiao-Matthysse bout as not a done deal yet.
Arum, 80-plus, was quoted as saying Pacquiao’s MP Promotions was lacking in money deposits to finally seal the deal.
That because the world welterweight clash was, in his estimation, in jeopardy, Arum, according to US websites, had offered Matthysse to fight Terrence Crawford instead of Pacquiao.
Quickly, though, Pacquiao dismissed the news as fake.
“I am trying my best with the help of God to make this fight a success,” said Pacquiao through philboxing.com. “I also pray for my detractors that God may enlighten their minds and soften their hearts.”
And look at this: Pacquiao is co-promoting the Matthysse fight with De La Hoya.
Pacquiao being naïve? Does he not know that De La Hoya is the last person on Earth that Arum wants to be with?
Well, Pacquiao might simply say, it’s just business.
Because every business deal in boxing is legit, that is why, in the words of Jimmy Cannon, boxing is the red-light district of sports. Tsk, tsk, tsk!