Boxing News: Manny Pacquiao should fight Canelo,Cotto, or Golovkin in April and stop using Mayweather’s name to sell PPV
Manny Pacquiao should stop using Floyd Mayweather’s name and fight the likes of Miguel Cotto, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, or Gennady Golovkin if the Filipino boxer wants to gain millions of pay-per-view numbers in his last fight.
Pacquiao has yet to pick an opponent for his farewell fight in April, although Top Rank Promotions boss Bob Arum has a list of potential opponents for the Filipino boxing icon. While a fight against Terence Crawford, Timothy Bradley, or Amir Khan could be exciting for boxing fans, pay-per-view numbers could be an issue for Pacquiao if he opts to fight one of them.
Mayweather is the most ideal option to earn huge amount of PPV buys, but “Pretty Boy” has already confirmed he has no interest in coming out of retirement to fight the former eight-division titlist, claiming that Pacquiao is only using his name to sell pay-per-view numbers in his fight.
“Mayweather is so boring, he’s this, he’s that!’ I’m boring enough to do the biggest and the best numbers in pay-per-view history,” Mayweather told Fight Hype. “What they’re doing is this, once again, piggybacking off my name to sell pay-per-view numbers when he do go out there and fight again.”
According to Chris Williams of Boxing News 24, Mayweather’s claims may actually be correct, with neither Bradley nor Crawford a factor in bringing millions of PPV buys like what the May-Pac fight did.
In their previous two matches against Bradley, Pacquiao “fail to hit 1 million PPV buys” and a third fight would probably bring even less. Crawford, on the other hand, is less popular than Bradley and only hardcore boxing fans know him, which means he could also bring less than average numbers of PPV buys for Pacquiao.
“What Pacquiao should do is tell Arum that he’s not interested in fighting any of the names he’s offered him,” Williams wrote. “Pacquiao needs to fight one of the middleweights like Miguel Cotto, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez or even Gennady Golovkin for his final fight.”
Williams added that if Pacquiao fights either of the three middleweights in April, he would not have to worry about pumping up his PPV buys.
Pacquiao has met Cotto before, so it would be possible if these two fighters battle again. He has also fought Antonio Margarito in the past at junior middleweight, which suggests he would have no problem adjusting to the same weight class if he is to fight Canelo or Golovkin.
However, Pacquiao seems to lean on fighting Crawford, a Top Rank stablemate. Pacquiao’s long-time manager Eric Pineda told the Manila Times that the boxer-turned-politician likes to fight Crawford “because he wants the best fight before he retires.”
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