The last time Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KO) fought outside the United States was in 2006, when fought in his home country of the Philippines and defeated Oscar Larios by unanimous decision. On November 23rd, Pacquiao will fight outside the U.S. again when he takes on Mexican fighter Brandon Rios (31-1-1, 23 KO) in Macau, China.
Pacquiao, once considered the pound-for-pound equal of Floyd Mayweather Jr., will take on the hard-charging Rios in what figures to be an all-out brawl. That is what Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum is thinking, anyway.
"People know what Rios brings to the table," Arum said. "People want to see a real fight, and that is what you get with Rios. We're building a business in Macau and China and these are the kinds of fights -- real action fights -- that they want to see."
Rios is fresh off a defeat in his last bout, a rematch with Mike Alvarado of a legendary first match in which Rios was victorious by way of technical knockout. The bloody affair was matched, if not surpassed in brutality by their second showdown, which took place in March of this year. Alvarado won the second time around by unanimous decision.
Pacquiao, meanwhile, has fallen off his lofty perch in the pound-for-pound rankings. After reeling off 15 straight wins, including victories over big names such as Erik Morales, Juan Manuel Marquez (twice), Marco Antonio Barrera, Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton, Shane Mosley and Miguel Cotto, he dropped a questionable decision to Timothy Bradley in June 2012. He was then knocked out by Marquez in December of 2012 and has been focusing on his political career in the Philippines since.
According to Pacquiao's Michael Koncz, said both Bradley and Marquez were offered rematches, but turned down offers in order to face each other this fall. Koncz claims Marquez was offered $13 million and when he turned it down, Bradley was offered $6 million.
Arum was giddy when talking about the marketing opportunity presented by having the fight in China. "What's gonna happen with this fight and event will be monumental from the standpoint of economics in boxing," Arum said. "We have a whole program of how to market pay-per-view in China, and we're gonna go on a barnstorming tour of China. In the United States, we market essentially only through cable and satellite systems, but in China, where they have about 1.4 billion people, it's all on the Internet, on iPhones, iPads and computers. If this thing works like we expect that it will, the boxing business will never be the same."
© Copyright 2024 Sports World News, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
