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Op-Ed: Knockout win by Pacquiao over Bradley could lead to more fights

Normally, a fighter coming from a loss or a series of losses would suffer a cut on his customary purse as his popularity falls when fans see a notable decline in his ring performance.

But in the case of Pacquiao, he remains popular among fans despite his devastating loss to Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012 and his most recent loss to Mayweather last May. Another significant loss for Pacquiao was his split decision loss to Timothy Bradley in their first encounter in June 2012, which was considered by fans as a won fight for Pacquiao.

Pacquiao’s early career defeats were expected because he still lacked the skill and experience in the early part of his pro career, except his loss to Erik Morales in 2005 which he avenged twice in a row.

With boxing fans’ continuing support, even though he has failed to score a knockout win in the last six years, Arum is compelled to continue paying him a guaranteed $20 million purse. Pacquiao last KO win was against Miguel Cotto in 2009.

Arum doesn’t care if Pacquiao loses in a fight because fans continue to support him regardless of the outcome of the fight. A typical Pacquiao fight would give Arum no less than half a million pay-per-view buys. Nowhere can he find a fighter in his stable who can deliver that much revenue for his company.

Except for his fight against Brandon Rios and Chris Algieri, Pacquiao has not gone below 500,000 PPV buys since his victory over Oscar de la Hoya in 2008. In today’s PPV market, a 500,000 buys is hard to achieve even for upcoming and unbeaten fighters.

As Arum continues to shell out $20 million for a typical Pacquiao fight despite his six-year KO holiday, a knockout win for Pacquiao against Bradley on April 9 would likely trigger a new series of lucrative fights for the Filipino fighter.

A KO win by Pacquiao in his third encounter with Bradley and another knockout win by the end of the year would only mean that Pacquiao’s shoulder injury was in fact the culprit in his KO holidays during the past six years.

Pacquiao is still young at 37 compared to other boxers who continue to fight even beyond 40 and still competitive.

Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao celebrates with coach Freddie roach and promoter Bob Arum during one o...

Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao celebrates with coach Freddie roach and promoter Bob Arum during one of his fight wins.
Chris Farina

As long as Pacquiao delivers no less than half a million PPV buys in every fight regardless of the outcome, Arum will continue to pay him guaranteed $20 million for his succeeding fights. Arum is a smart businessman and he knows that Pacquiao will continue to be his cash cow for the next few years.

This is the reason why Arum is not selling the Pacquiao-Bradley bout as Pacquiao’s farewell fight.

“I am not going to position this as his last fight,” Arum said. “It may very well be his last fight, but I won’t put myself in the position of selling it as his last fight and then he decides he wants to fight again and I look like a schmuck. I’m not sure it is his last fight, despite what he told me.” he added.

It won’t be surprising if Mayweather will come out of retirement once Pacquiao starts knocking out his next opponents as a result of his successful shoulder surgery. If that happens, a second fight against the unbeaten champion could even dwarf the historic revenue that was generated during their last fight.

Still, such a scenario would only be possible if it can be ascertained that Pacquiao’s six-year knockout holiday was indeed caused by his shoulder injury which will show in the outcome of his next fight against Bradley.

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