I told my friend the other night that "if Manny wins this fight, look for bob arum to suddenly start talking up the Floyd fight"... of course after the fight, I came home and looked at some articles and sure enough found arum already speaking about it. However, based off of some things I have read, heard and my own thoughts there are a few ways I think this will go down... 1. We get Manny vs. Floyd BUT not until 2015 when Manny's contract with top rank runs out. This is not the most likely of scenarios however for two reasons. Manny has said that he does not plan to leave arum, and Floyd HATES arum. 2. We get Floyd vs. Bradley: I know I know, but Bradley just lost! Here me out on this one anyway. Floyd and his team are masters of hyping a fight. Floyd will say that he felt like Bradley beat Manny and that had Bradley not been injured early in the fight he would have beaten him again. Why I think this is the more likely fight? For a few reasons. One that I mentioned about Manny being with arum. However, the bigger reasons are that Bradley just made 6 million for this fight, he is a less expensive opponent, but is he a draw enough to sell the fight? YES! He's now easily beaten the guy who KO'd Manny, has an "official" win over Manny and has been in now two PPV's with Manny. That's a lot of exposure. Why else will it sell? Floyd vs. Alvarez was the highest grossing PPV event in history, everyone assumed that half of that was because of Alvarez, but after the disappointing PPV numbers for Alvarez vs. Angulo have come out, it seems that Floyd was the draw, but not because people love him... because people want to see him lose, many of those PPV's were simply for that reason alone. But Tim Bradley is with top rank too, so how can this happen? Simple, Bradley cares more about legacy and would happily buy out his contract with arum for a fight with Floyd. Floyd offers him 5-10 million dollars without arums typical 30% cut and in the end Bradley makes more than he did Saturday night and the shot of causing a HUGE upset. Manny is loyal to arum to a fault... I don't believe Bradley is the same way. Let's assume for a second though that arum sits down with golden boy and they try to work out a deal. Floyd will not give Manny half after being knocked out by Marquez and looking less impressive vs. Rios and Bradley (in the sense of the Manny of 2009-2012). Depending on how the numbers come in from Saturday which I will guestimate that 600-800k buys (Manny vs. Rios was only 500k) and at the most he offers Manny a 70/30 split at best, which will immediately kill talks with arum and that side. 3. Floyd reaches out to Manny either bypassing arum, or perhaps he attempts to convince Manny to sign with golden boy when his contract is up instead in which he would get less money taken off of his purse, a signing bonus for however many fights and then offers him the same 40 million dollar guarantee (Manny was just guaranteed by arum 20 million for Saturday night) that he offered Manny before. Remember, Manny has serious tax issues and may wind up broke very soon if someone doesn't step in and help him and arum isn't interest in that.. he just wants the guy to fight and keep making him money. 4. We get Floyd vs. Martinez: Cotto and Martinez will fight in June, if Martinez wins that fight, but looks beatable I can really see Floyd shooting him an offer of a few million. Martinez wanted the Cotto fight so bad he told his people "give him whatever he wants and let's fight"... this shows that he would be more than willing to do the same for Floyd. This is perhaps Floyd's cheapest option as well as legacy defining one. Martinez is not a big middleweight and IIRC he hasn't even come into a MW fight at the 160 lb limit since he's been there. He's 5'10 vs. Floyd's 5'8 and Floyd has a very long reach for his size. It's quite a winnable fight for Floyd. I also have heard that he will be at ringside for the fight which means he's scoping out his options anyway. 5. We get Bradley vs. Cotto @154? Cotto was at ringside for the Bradley fight and win or lose, Cotto is not going to stay at 160 and fight Golovkin, and while Tim isn't a big guy @ 5'6, Miguel is only listed as 5'7-5'7.5. This is an interesting match up because while Cotto is a great body puncher, he's not a concussive head puncher and Bradley's speed and movement could pose massive problems for Cotto. This would be a fun fight. Some people have speculated that Bradley could fight Rios. This is a stupid fight that IMO no one wants to see. Beating Rio's would do nothing for his career and even more if he were to get a fluke loss it would end his career as a top fighter in general. Little gain, much to lose there. This is of course just a few of the options I've thought up while reading some things and talking to a few writers that I do on occasion. All of this is assuming Floyd doesn't take a fluke loss to Maidana as well... never can tell. After May 3rd, he will have 3 fights left on his showtime contract. One will be in Sept. and the other 2 will be next year. I can predict that we might see him fight Danny Garcia (if he stays undefeated and is an easy win), Bradley or Manny, and Martinez *crosses fingers* to try to really go out with a bang.
Looks like you've all the angles covered! I'm not so sure about Cotto, though. I think a successful win against Martinez for the history books will have him thinking long and hard before he signs on to a potential legacy-busting deal with Bradley. The risk/reward for Cotto? Though, as you said, it would be interesting on the face of it. Floyd/Manny...nahhh....their bones will be in the graveyard lying side by side, their ghosts haunting each other, steadfastly refusing to sign for all of eternity. Man, that fight Cotto had with Mayweather was one of the better one's me thinks. Floyd sure had to work for that one, LOL. That's about as good as it gets; as they say here - 'cause PacMan/Mayweather ain't happening on this side of the grave or the other for that matter.
I say Bradley vs. Cotto at 154 because Tim is small and I don't know the heights of many of the top 154 lb fighters, but it could be another weight division belt since everyone wants to get as many as possibly these days. Cotto is small enough and is getting older to fight someone like Bradley who still has fresh legs (this assuming he doesn't overtrain or whatever seems to be causing his leg issues) and would have a legit shot. A rubbermatch with Manny isn't likely, but I suppose if arum was really desperate he could set that up.
Well Bradley did "win" the first one, so it could be a possible match. Marquez says he wants to just enjoy his final victory over Manny which did settle all of the debates about the close scoring never going for Marquez (which I felt at least the 3rd should have... the second one was close but I did have Marquez up by one). Money talks and that could get Juan back in the ring with Manny. If not I don't think that Roach would want to risk Manny in the ring with Bradley again. Honestly if you think about it, both times Bradley has injuries and even with a first round injury the judges had the fight even at the 6th round. With 2 good legs we might have seen a different fight. Losing to Tim would jeopardize a possible fight with Floyd and no matter what they say, don't be fooled... they want that money that fight will bring.
I'd like to see Alvarez fight Bradley. I think that would be a really interesting fight. Or even better, Alvarez vs Pacquiao. 2 prides of their respective nations battling it out in the ring. I think that's a fight that would sell like crazy. Although Alvarez is probably a little too big for these guys and settling on a weight limit would be difficult.
Roided Manny stops Alvarez pretty easy, but takes a few good shots in the process... Manny now doesn't have enough sting and Alvarez isn't what I would consider an elite boxer, so the speed would cause him issues, but there's always that one punch. Similarly to Bradley. I think either could outmove and hit him all night en route to a screweage UD loss because they were "running" since most people don't know the difference between running and actually boxing.
Well, they're bad suggestions on second thought. Alvarez is too big for them, so the outcome of those fights is largely influenced by the weight they agree to fight at. And considering that Alvarez probably can't pass the welterweight mark without sacrificing his body, Bradley and Pacquiao would have to fight at the Jr. Middleweight mark and I think that's probably too much in favor of Alvarez. So yeah, not gonna happen. How about Bradley vs Guerrero? One lost to Mayweather, the other to Pacquiao. They share some common ground don't you think?
Guerrero is a tough fight for pretty much anybody. Again though, that's a fight that pushes Bradley's career back instead of forward. If you want to be elite (such as I believe Bradley is), you have to go after the very top guys in the division. The problem again is the top rank vs. golden boy issue. That's stopping a lot of fights from happening. I'd like to see Bradley fight Garcia. Garcia IMO is one of the biggest frauds of a champion I have seen. Luck has been on his side thus far. He beat an old and VERY shot Morales, he landed a left hook on khan, who was handily beating him, and then with Lucas' eye injury he was still able to rock Garcia... I mean really, even the last 3 rounds of his fight with Judah had Zab gone after him would have resulted in a win for Zab IMO. So... to fight Bradley is a pretty easy win, and would be another undefeated fighter with a title (if Bradley could make 140) and that would keep Tim's stock up.
Come to think of it... I've been wondering why Marquez would even be fighting Alvarado... he will likely give him a boxing lesson and really it doesn't do much for Marquez. Of course, coming off of the loss to Tim he looked rather ordinary vs. the guy who KO'd Manny. I guess he's got to have someone to fight to keep sharp if he happens to fight Manny yet AGAIN... a 5th fight to me is so stupid I swear lol.
Yes, I agree. I'm not keen on seeing another Marquez vs Pacquiao. Quite enough now, thank you. Manny isn't getting any younger with each passing day and his last few fights ought to be something more than the usual fare of hackneyed repeats that is now the norm of the sport. The same for Floyd Mayweather. I can almost guarantee he will be fighting Khan while Pacquiao-Marquez is going on. Are the divisions that shallow? People don't realise just how led by the rings in their noses these fighters are. They think these larger-than-life figures with all the fame and money are captains of their own destiny but nothing could be further from the truth. Its the promotions that control them - control virtually every facet of their lives, I would wager. Much more so than the avg man or woman is controlled by the corporation they may work for. There are some potentially great fights that could be had (not just Mayweather/Pacquiao) but the promotions make all the decisions, despite what they say in front of the cameras, and those decisions are based upon how it will benefit the promotions. That's why we will end up with Pacquiao/Marquez and Mayweather/Khan. At least with Khan, its something new, the possibility that something unscripted and unpredictable may fall out of the mechanism. Just a slight possibility.
The divisions aren't really shallow, but big fights are. To us, a big fight can be 2 guys who are unknown by most of the public, but we have followed... or at least have some idea of them. For instance this weekend we have Popkins vs. Shumanov (however you spell it) and then Malignaggi vs Shawn Porter. That's a good fight though I don't think Paulie will be able to win that one, we'll see though. He exposed Broner pretty well. Then on the 26th Matthysse is fighting again. Always like to see Lucas fight. So yeah, big fights are there... money making fights are becoming slim which is why we have Mayweather vs. Maidana or maybe Khan who I still don't think Floyd will fight. Hopefully he's not that stupid to make his career take that much of a step back while we are getting Cotto vs. Martinez, Chavez vs. Golovkin has yet to be signed and I have a real feeling Chafatz isn't that trusting in his abilities. Canelo vs. Lara is also coming up I think in July or August.
Pacquiao v Alvarez. Exactly what I was thinking. He wasn't too big for Floyd, so why should it be any different for Pacquiao - if he thinks he is on Mayweather's level.
Or what about, if he gets through his next fight, Khan v Pacquiao? I think Pacquiao would splatter him fairly quickly, but I think the fight would sell, and be fast while it lasts.
khan would likely get beaten, but his height and reach might pose issues for Manny. Here again though, either Floyd or Manny fighting khan is a step back for them. khan almost got beaten by a guy he was supposed to steamroll in his last fight, he's gotten KO'd twice and has been shown to be a complete hype job. He doesn't deserve a shot at Manny or Floyd... he's done absolutely nothing to prove himself as even close to elite unless you count how well he manages to get hit with left hooks.
Mayweather will end up fighting Khan - but yes, this Saturday is Hopkins/Beibut Shumenov - which I'm looking forward to - especially if Hopkins fights like he did in the Murat fight. Cotto vs Martinez is a great one. But outside of that...I don't think we will be very satisfied with Manny and Floyds final contentions - which is a shame.
I know people think I hate Manny, but at no time would that fight have been even competitive, they would take full random testing. It's like beating a dead horse yes, but Manny was using. Now that he is more religious, he relies on God instead of that stuff... this is great as far as my own beliefs, but even PED's cannot help you against a Mayweather as long as he hasn't gotten old. There just isn't much else to say about that... so even back in his "prime" he would have been exposed when he suddenly got into the ring with Floyd, was slower and less powerful. Also, I do get sick of people talking about Manny's age... keep in mind that Floyd is 2 years older and while Manny has had a longer pro career... Floyd was fighting and getting robbed blind in the olymipics and had a longer amateur career, so he's also had a lot of fights... neither guy is in his very top prime. Manny may have started to slide a little first, but Floyd will as well. I'd do his last few Showtime contract fights and call it a career.
Yeah, there's no real doubt in my mind, either, that Mayweather would best in that - but its the closest to a competitive fight that we'll ever see him in unless he jumps a weight class.
