Manny Pacquiao: Bob Arum's Mayweather Comments Hurt Pacquiao-Marquez Fight

Manny Pacquiao makes his triumphant return to the ring Nov. 12 against Juan Manuel Marquez, but the only thing that people want to talk about is what Pacquiao's promoter Bob Arum had to say on Wednesday regarding the long-talked about super fight between Mayweather and Pac-Man. 

Arum made the comments shortly before Pacquiao's media day workout and the boxing fans around the world let out a collective groan. 

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"That fight will never, ever happen. Ever, ever happen because of Mayweather. When Mayweather talks about how he hates Top Rank he's talking bulls---. What Mayweather hates is Manny's right hand. Mayweather has no chin and Manny will knock him out...It's the right hand of Manny that is preventing that fight from happening. If Manny agreed just to jab with the right hand the fight would be made in 30 seconds."

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Hardcore boxing fans will disagree with this vehemently, but the only reason that casual fans keep watching the sport—or specifically Pacquiao and Mayweather because everyone else is irrelevant—is because they believe that it gets us one step closer to the biggest fight of our lifetime. 

To have Pacquiao's own promoter come out and say that the two fighters will never meet hurts anything else that they are currently doing. 

For instance, the Pacquiao and Marquez fight is coming hot on the heels of Mayweather's return in September. 

Pacquiao has nothing to gain from a third fight with Marquez. He has already proven that he can beat Marquez. The only reason this fight exists is to get us to the Mayweather fight. But if that is off the table—for the record, I don't believe a word Arum said—then why should we care about this fight?

Boxing is like professional wrestling in a lot of ways. You have to promote the current fight, but you have to do enough to get people interested in what could happen next. 

For Arum to completely dismiss a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight by telling the world that it will never, ever happen, he ruins any reason for us to get invested in the outcome of the Pacquiao and Marquez fight. 

People will buy the show because Pacquiao has that power, but when it is over no one is going to care about what they have seen unless they have some hope that this fight is leading to something bigger.