Pacquiao has stated that he is thinking of doing one or two more fights before retiring. But his plan is dependent on the advice of his orthopedic surgeon, who is currently monitoring the progress of the surgery he had last month stemming from his recent shoulder injury.
Pacquiao is coming off a unanimous decision loss against Mayweather on May 2 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight dubbed “Fight of the Century” generated more $500 million in gross revenues, which is unmatched in boxing history.
Before the fight, Mayweather and Pacquiao agreed to a 60-40 purse sharing in favor of Mayweather. According to Forbes, Mayweather made at least $300 million while Pacquiao’s share was $160 million.
Mayweather says his scheduled Sept 12 ring return will be his retirement fight. If he wins, Mayweather will share history with legendary boxer Rocky Marciano, who retired undefeated with 49-0 record. It is possible that Mayweather will go for his historic 50th win to break Marciano’s record.
If Mayweather picks someone else for his 50th fight, Pacquiao can forget about the Mayweather rematch and explore the possibility of facing any one of the following challengers.
Amir Khan (31-3-0, 19 KOs)
Khan is coming off a unanimous decision win against former Pacquiao foe, Chris Algieri and has won five straight fights since losing to Danny Garcia in 2012.
The former Olympic silver medalist has been fighting in the U.S. since his TKO win against Paulie Malignaggi in 2010 and has good public awareness there. If the fight is held in UK, it could be a blockbuster fight as Khan will get hometown support.
Khan and Pacquiao have maintained cordial relations, having trained under Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach for a number of years. Khan has traveled to the Philippines and briefly sparred with Pacquiao in one of their training sessions in Baguio City.
Pacquiao has likewise visited Khan in the UK and their promoters have initially talked about a future fight either in the US or in England.
Winner of the Cotto-Alvarez fight
The winner of the Cotto-Alvarez fight which is yet to be finalized, would be a good match for Pacquiao in his return fight in April or May next year.
A win by Cotto (40-4-0, 33 KOs) could set him up in a rematch with Pacquiao either in New York or in Las Vegas. Cotto is very popular in the East Coast particularly in New York where he had some of his blockbuster fights at the Madison Square Garden and lately at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Pacquiao and Cotto fought in 2009 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas with Pacquiao winning via TKO in an action fight that garnered 1,250,000 pay-per-view buys.
A win by Alvarez (45-1-1, 32 KOs) could also set him up with Pacquiao in May at the MGM Grand where Mayweather usually holds his fights to coincide with Mexican independence day.
Alvarez is very popular in Mexico and among Mexicans in the US. His fight against Mayweather in 2013 garnered 2,200.000 buys, the second highest in boxing history.
Marcos Maidana
Marcos Maidana (35-5-0, 31 KOs) has figured in two pay-per-view fights against Mayweather with both fights making close to 1,000,000 buys. Maidana performed well against Mayweather in their first encounter (majority decision) which led to a rematch that ended in a unanimous decision.
While these proposed challengers would bring in more PPV buys to boost Pacquiao’s purse, it is doubtful if Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum would make arrangement for the fight.
Arum has been plugging the names of Terence Crawford and Jessie Vargas for Pacquiao’s next fight. Both of them are under contract with Arum’s Top Rank Promotions.
Seemingly, Arum is grooming these two Top Rank fighters to become his future cash cows when Pacquiao finally retires from the sport.
These two guys can’t help Pacquiao maximize his earnings as they are still unpopular and they are not yet PPV attractions.
Pacquiao will be doing Arum a big favor if he agrees to fight these guys because they will become Arum’s new revenue generators once they share the spotlight with Pacquiao.
For Pacquiao to make at least half of what he earned for the Mayweather fight, he needs to fight opponents with good tract records in generating revenues for the fight including Khan, Cotto, Alvarez and Maidana.
