By: Hans Themistode
The boxing world was seemingly minding its own business before Manny Pacquiao dropped his seismic size news upon it.
The former eight-division world champion announced this past Friday that he will be taking on unified welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. in Las Vegas, Nevada, on August 21st.
All along, promoter Bob Arum continually stated that he was attempting to lock in a deal of his own with Pacquiao to face WBO welterweight star, Terence Crawford. That, of course, failed to materialize. Now, with Spence Jr. and Pacquiao a reality, Arum isn’t upset with the way things shaked out. All in all, he believes he did all he could.
“We tried to do Pacquiao and Crawford over in Abu Dhabi because the money is huge for that fight,” said Arum during an interview with ESNews.
While Arum claims that he wanted to stage Crawford vs. Pacquiao overseas due to financial reasons, Pacquiao vs. Spence Jr. is happening stateside. Considering the risk that came along with attempting to do the same, Arum reveals that he simply wasn’t willing to pull the trigger.
“As a business person, I just thought that it was too risky,” explained Arum. “Hopefully, they come out okay with Pacquiao and Spence but it’s risking a lot of money to do.”
Pacquiao, 42, was last seen in the ring in 2019 against Keith Thurman. After scoring a first-round knockdown, Pacquiao took home a split decision win on the night. As for Spence Jr., the powerful southpaw made it look easy against Danny Garcia in December of 2020, beating him mercilessly over the course of 12 rounds.
The moment Pacquiao decides to hang up his boxing gloves, the next stop for him will be the boxing Hall of Fame. As his former promoter, Arum nestled into his ringside seat for numerous years to watch Pacquiao destroy his opponents. Despite that, he has a hard time giving him the edge this time around.
“I would never count out Manny Pacquiao but you would have to make Spence the big favorite.”