Bob Arum Sees Pacquiao-Marquez 5 in Sept., NOT in US

Bob Arum Sees Pacquiao-Marquez – Promoter Bob Arum believes he doesn’t think Juan Manuel Marquez has talked about retirement as an option as a bargaining chip heading towards a fifth fight against Manny Pacquiao. Speaking at Kingsway Gym in NYC, as the headliners for the Saturday Top Rank/K2 card at the Madison Square Garden Theater chatted with media, Arum said he wants to make a fifth tussle in September. He thinks the bout would take place in perhaps Macau, Mexico City, or Singapore…but not in the US. Why? Because top rate income taxes for highest earners in the US has jumped from 35% to 39.6%. “Enough is enough,” Arum railed.

Of the chatter that Marquez might walk away from the game on a massive high note, Arum said he believes Marquez at face value. “It’s not a negotiating ploy,” he said. “He’s a really proud guy, he’s saved his money, he has a degree in accounting.” Maybe he wants to do that is so rarely done, walk away after a win. “The kid knows how to negotiate without threatening,” he said.

Arum would like to do a heavy push, six months worth, of promotion for a September scrap between the rivals. He noted that he doesn’t have to pull out all the stops. All he has to do to hype it, he said, is “show the clips. Show the friggin’ clips.”

When Manny went down, and Mitt Romney’s jaw dropped, his job was almost done in hyping another tangle between the two.

Yeah, Romney, at the arena, looked more surprised at the Pacman KO than he did when Obama bettered him on November 6.

Arum said Marquez could expect to earn a career-best payday for a fifth scrap. He doesn’t seem to think Manny would do an interim fight, and would like the boxer to undergo super stringent testing, at the Cleveland Clinic, to make sure his brain is as it should be post KO. He noted that Pacquiao is in charge, not the promoter, not trainer Freddie Roach, who has gone on record as saying he didn’t think Manny should get in the ring in April, so soon after a vicious KO.

SPEEDBAG Arum said he will wait and see what the Vegas commission rules on a length of suspension for Julio “Cheech” Chavez Jr., before trying to plan what’s next for the son of the legend. “If he smoked a joint to help him sleep that’s better than a sleeping pill,” Arum said. He repeated his take that it’s a good thing boxing promoters don’t get tested for reefer, and that the weed is legal in many states. No, he said, he wouldn’t stage a Junior fight somewhere outside the US. “I’ll abide by the Nevada commission,” he said. Best case scenario would probably be a rematch with Sergio Martinez, in November. Martinez has a fight booked, against Martin Murray, in the meantime. They tussle April 27 in Argentina. Arum would like Junior to get in a bout before a rematch, as well.

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