Did Manny Pacquiao Make the Right Move by Resigning with Top Rank?

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Well, there’s an old saying that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. This is something that Tim Bradley implied when we here at Tha Boxing Voice interviewed him back in March.

Bradley was asked why he decided to sign a contract extension with Top Rank when there were possibly more lucrative match ups over at Golden Boy Promotions, which may have included a future fight with boxing’s cash cow Floyd Mayweather. Bradley explained that he felt that even if he had signed with Golden Boy that would not guarantee him a fight with Floyd Mayweather. He went on to explain that “Floyd is his own boss. He can pick and choose who he wants to fight.” I suspect that Manny Pacquiao felt the same way when he decided to extend his contract with his long time promoter Top Rank which will now expire on December 31, 2016.

Bradley’s wife and manager Monica had said that Top Rank had included in his extension a substantial minimum guaranteed purse per fight. Tim himself has acknowledged that he has already made a great deal of money with his current promoter and there’s no guarantee that someone else would pay him what is getting right now.

I’m not going to pretend that I know the details of Pacquiao’s extension, but I feel that if Bradley was able to get a deal with a hefty set guaranteed minimum then I believe it’s pretty safe to assume that the Filipino icon probably has gotten one as well which is presumably much larger than Bradley’s.

It’s obvious that Bob Arum realizes that he doesn’t have an ample amount of stars left in his stable, and he seems willing to invest a lot of money in the ones that he has left. I believe that he was willing to do whatever it took to make sure that he kept Pacquiao on board.

The first thing that came to mind yesterday when the news was announced was that the potential superfight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather is now officially dead and buried because of Mayweather’s refusal to do business with Bob Arum and Top Rank. Mayweather fans are now saying that because Manny resigned with Top Rank, he really doesn’t want to fight Floyd Mayweather.

At the end of the day I believe that fighters should always do what’s best for themselves and their family. It seems as though that is what Bradley and Pacquiao have done in their respective situations.

It is true that Floyd Mayweather is the biggest star in the sport who calls the shots and dictates the terms of all his fights, but is it worth it for a fighter to wait around and base his career decisions on one fight? We all saw what happened to Amir Khan when he chose to wait around for over a year while Mayweather strung him along and in the end he ended up not getting the fight as Floyd chose to fight Marcos Maidana instead.

Opinions may vary but at the end of the day only time will tell if a Pacquaio-Mayweather fight will ever happen. In the meantime, as a famous theatre composer Noel Coward once said, “The show must go on.” Boxing can’t allow one man to hold the sport hostage.