Is Arum preventing Pacquiao-Broner or working for his own stable’s fighters?

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Bob Arum Manny PacquiaoAdrien “The Problem” Broner is ringing in the New Year with a bang, firing multiple shots (no pun intended) at rivals this week over social media platforms Twitter and Instagram.

 

Broner, the talented, yet enigmatic super lightweight champion, began garnering attention from fans and media in a Christmas Eve Instagram post that stated this regarding eight-division world champion, Manny Pacquiao “Whoever think this guy will beat me is a dam fool…. I don’t lose to southpaws….#PointBlankPeriod” [sic].

 

This Instagram post seem to confirm what was whispered amongst some, that Broner was indeed a candidate, albeit a longshot for Pacquiao’s farewell fight, scheduled for April 9th.

 

As Christmas passed and insiders continued to dismiss the Pacquiao vs Broner pairing, Adrien stirred the pot again. In an Instagram post from December 28th, Broner stated, “I don’t give a f*** who I fight if @mannypacquiao want to make this fight happen in April I’m ready”. Although Adrien also alluded to another opponent, TMT’s Ashley Theophane, his preference seemed to favor the future Hall of Famer from the Philippines.

 

The fired up Broner continued to spread his ether, this time on Twitter when an inflammatory tweet regarding Top Rank CEO Bob Arum was posted, “bob arum b**** ass don’t want to make the fight because he’s upset I ain’t sign with him when he tried to sell me a dream at his crib in LA”.

 

For the last month or so, Broner’s anticipated opponent was the aforementioned Theophane, so this course change has come to the surprise of many. Remember, Broner took to social media early this month to take some digs at his self-proclaimed mentor, Floyd Mayweather Jr., when the Theophane talks came to life.

 

Apparently, Broner’s recent behavior is a portrayal of a champion whose not afraid to express his thoughts and opinions, whether we take it as a positive or negative trait.

 

As far as Pacquiao’s farewell is concerned, the date of April 9th has been on the calendar for a few months now. Arum, however, has not yet confirmed a dance partner, consistently postponing the formal announcement.

 

Before Broner’s ambush, the three leading candidates for Manny were welterweight champion Timothy Bradley, Terence Crawford, and former super lightweight champ Amir Khan. Many out there will tell you Bradley is already signed, set and ready to be announced come January, but Bradley has also created tepid feedback at best from fans as a potential opponent for Pacquiao. It appears Crawford will not get the fight, either as he looks like he’s headed for a twin bill, sharing with Felix Verdejo in New York.

 

Pacquiao vs Broner and Pacquiao vs Khan are fantastic matchups that would be sure to garner massive attention from the boxing community. The problem with these potential barnburners is they would require negotiations between arch rivals Arum and Al Haymon, the powerful manager who manages both Broner and Khan. Most likely, we will never see them materialize.

 

The Arum-Haymon beef has been long standing, the genesis being Mayweather leaving Top Rank to sign with Haymon. In order to leave Top Rank, Mayweather had to pay Arum $750,000 to break his contract. This proved to be a wise investment as Mayweather went on to rebrand himself and earn record-setting paydays under Haymon’s management.

 

It makes much sense that Broner spurned Arum sales pitch that day in Los Angles, as Adrien, like many of us, follow in the footsteps of our role models, in this case, Broner making the same choice as Mayweather.

 

At this point, I would like to see Arum let bygones be bygones and let this Haymon beef pass. It’s not like he didn’t accept the Floyd buyout money. This nonsense has been carrying on for almost ten years and is impeding potential fights fans want to see. I can certainly see why Broner singled out Arum in his salvo, as his Haymon grudge and subsequent current lawsuit seems juvenile and borderline hypercritical. We can only hope in 2016 the politics from all parties, veer towards healing.