Listen, I completely respect
that Manny Pacquiao wants to take his time and make the best deal for himself as it
relates to his next outing. He's earned that right; he's meant so much to the
sport and the business of boxing and guys like him, they've absolutely earned
the right to play by their own rules. But really, it's coming to that point
where he's now holding up a lot of people with his indecision and he should -
for want of a better word - piss or get off the pot.
Because there are networks,
boxers, promoters, managers, trainers and venues waiting to see what their next
steps will be - but they can't do anything till it's decided when (or is it
really “if”?) Pacquiao decides who to fight. From there, hook-ups like Orlando
Salido-Mikey Garcia, Erislandy Lara-Vanes Martirosyan, Miguel Vazquez-Mercito
Gesta among others need to find dates and networks on which to land. And until
Pacquiao makes up his mind, none of this can or will happen. Yeah, there's a
lot of lunacy in this business but nobody is crazy enough to really want to go
up against a Pacquiao event. And then there's the whole issue of December 8th - the third date Pacquiao has chosen to fight on - where it looks like Saul “Canelo”
Alvarez will perform to end the year (of course, he still has to get by
Josesito Lopez next week in Las Vegas).
There is some speculation
that perhaps Pacquiao really doesn't want to fight during the remainder of 2012.
That's certainly his right but, really, can he make up his mind, one way or the
other? Arum told me on Thursday afternoon that “significant progress” been made
regarding Pacquiao's next fight. Perhaps it's just coded phrase for “Another
week has gone by.”
