By John-Paul Wolfe
Bob Arum, promoter of Filipino boxing star Manny Pacquiao, has confirmed that an agreement has been made for Pacquiao v. Brandon ‘BamBam’ Rios on Nov. 24 in Macau. Although a big money fight against one of boxing’s superstars has been the goal of Rios since he scored a 7th round TKO victory over then undefeated, Mike Alvarado of Denver, it is somewhat surprising that he has been awarded this fight after losing the rematch with Alvarado in March.
By picking Rios as his next opponent, Pacquiao has avoided any danger of racking up a third consecutive loss, but has also lowered himself to a level where he now fights recently defeated fighters. Only a year ago it would have been unthinkable for Pacquiao to accept a fight against an opponent coming off a loss, let alone against a naturally smaller fighter who has yet to break out of the boxing world and into the culture of mainstream sports.
It is clear that Pacquiao, and his people have selected Rios because they know it will be an easy fight due to Rios’ straight forward style that plays right into the hands of the power punching lefty. But how did this fight come to be? Why not avenge one of his last two defeats? Because Arum, Pacquiao and the rest of their team waited to secure either of those matchups, and now Tim Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez will be fighting each other later on this year; in a fight that provides much more intrigue to boxing fans than the coming fight for Pacquiao.
Following the loss to Bradley, Pacquiao should have listened to the advice of his mother, and given Bradley the rematch. Most everyone felt that Pacquiao won the first fight and would have been able to erase any doubts with a rematch. Instead, Pacquiao scheduled a fight against Marquez, his nemesis and the man who has given him the most trouble of any challenger inside the ring, as evident in their first three fights. The fourth matchup ended in disaster for Pacquiao, getting knocked out cold in the 6th.
It was bad decision making outside of the ring, combined with subpar performances in it, that have lead Pacquiao to be fighting a fairly meaningless opponent in what most predict will be a one sided blowout against an over matched and undersized opponent. It is possible that this could be a new beginning for the Filipino star, but all signs point towards a steady decline performance and relevance on the way to retirement.
