MANNY PACQUIAO LEAVES HBO WITH HIS COUNSELOR BOB ARUM
Editorial By John Gatling, Real Combat Media NY Boxing Correspondent
“Pakow’. ‘Manny Pic.. Pacqua’. Excuse me…”, stumbled Jim Lampley out of the block, in HBO’s historic first encounter of a legendary kind with the iconic Manny Pacquiao.
In circa June 2001, a Filipino bandana wearing “Pac-Man” made his way to the ring with an eccentric wizard named Freddie Roach.
After a totally unexpected 6th round massacre to claim Ledwaba’s super bantamweight title, they would follow that performance with a shocking 11th round TKO of Mexican great Marco Antonio Barrera in November 2003.
They would become a new Muhammad Ali and Angelo Dundee; and in no time, Top Rank’s Bob Arum witnessed a marriage between a fighter and a network truly unique in the annals of sports history.
Back then, Freddie Roach was placing “huuuge” bets on Pacquiao before fights and winning big. He would often nail exact stoppages from what would become the sport’s only eight-division world champion.
Today, as we approach September 2016, Roach is “Mush” from “A Bronx Tale”, the guy you put in the closet when you roll the dice and don’t want him looking at em.
Pacquiao, for his part, “Ain’t packin em in like you used to.”, as a seedy manager once told the late Prince in a movie classic. As such– Pacquiao, Roach and Arum would now like nothing more than to see HBO bathing in the “Purple Rain”.
We saw this coming.
The exhaustive process to put together the super fight with Floyd Mayweather wore everyone out: but especially HBO.
The epic saga with Marquez and the classic trilogy with Morales. The historic blitzing of all-time great Oscar De La Hoya. The ridiculous year of 2009, which saw Pacquiao go “Wapakman” on Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto. The dazzling displays of speed and ferocity against massive fighters Joshua Clottey and Antonio Margarito in 2010.
All of that was captured on a network which documented his one-of-a-kind life; as perhaps the greatest southpaw of all-time, and the greatest 3rd world fighter to have ever lived.
But in this decade, the results don’t compare to the former, as the great Pacquiao has failed to stop an opponent since the uber-assault on Cotto in November 2009.
The apex of his prime was spent in that supernatural performance against Margarito in November 2010 – a fight that should’ve been stopped, and the last time we saw a Pacquiao gunning for the KO: He was bamboozled by a Marquez right for the ages in December 2012.
HBO saw a depreciating asset in Pacquiao. In a move that probably would have been made by New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, HBO boxing chief Peter Nelson dumped him before he was nothing and could cost them no more.
This probably had a lot to do with Arum’s recent trips to the Philippines.
In fact, Top Rank is in trouble with HBO; which itself, seems a network teetering on the brink of programming disaster.
Max Kellerman, a recent ESPN acquisition, recently blasted Arum’s decision to stage the November 5 bout with WBO welterweight champion Jesse Vargas instead of Terence Crawford.
The network probably would have been ok with a Vargas fight, if it paired the rising star against Juan Manuel Marquez.
In a February 2016 RING piece by Mitch Abramson, Arum suggested he would attempt to match Crawford with Marquez this year– and November 5 would have been perfect.
I asked Marquez about that fight in Las Vegas at the Pacquiao vs. Bradley III bout, and he stated “Bud” was ‘a good fight’, as Crawford is ‘a risk taker who I can counter’.
Finally, HBO counter-punched Arum, after throwing out a lazy jab of Felix Verdejo against WBO lightweight champion Terry Flanagan as a co-feature.
You could sense a divorce coming at the Pac/Bradley III presser in January, as it was one of the most morbid affairs Madison Square Garden has ever hosted.
Whoever they get involved with next on the rebound just might get their feelings hurt.
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