Manny Pacquiao agrees to extension with Top Rank through 2016
Manny Pacquiao signed a contract extension with Top Rank on Tuesday that will likely keep him with the promotional company of the remainder of his illustrious career.
The deal that Pacquiao signed will take him through Dec. 31, 2016, when he will be 38 years old. Top Rank CEO Bob Arum told Yahoo Sports that the contract will continue "as usual," meaning two fights a year, including one in the spring and one in the fall.
Pacquiao plans next to fight in November in Macau, China. Juan Manuel Marquez, coming off of a big win over Mike Alvarado on Saturday, will be offered the fight. If he declines, Top Rank plans to pursue Ruslan Provodnikov.
"These guys are like family to me," Arum said. "We had discussed this for a while and I was always sure it would get done. Now that it's been signed and is formally signed, it puts a wrap on it and it feels good to know we'll be together for another two years."
Arum said he remained open to making a fight with pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather and said the contract with Pacquiao does not preclude it. He said if the fight occurs before the end of 2015, it could be on both Showtime and HBO, as was the 2002 pay-per-view match between Mike Tyson, who was then exclusively with Showtime, and Lennox Lewis, who was exclusively with HBO.
Mayweather is under contract with Showtime and has three more fights remaining on the six-fight deal he signed with the company in 2013.
"I'm not going to worry about something I can't bring to bear," Arum said of a potential Pacquiao-Mayweather fight. "We want to fight him and we're willing to discuss it at any point. There are two ways to go here. One is to do a Mayweather fight with both HBO and Showtime involved, as they did with Lewis-Tyson, as I understand Mayweather is under contract to Showtime through 2015. The companies could come together and put on the show.
"Or, the other alternative is, if Floyd wanted to fight Manny in 2016, he could return to HBO and we could do it there."
A difficulty making the fight obviously is the relationship between Arum and Mayweather and Arum and Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer, who has repeatedly said he will no longer do business with Arum. Mayweather has worked with Golden Boy exclusivley since 2007, but said he is loyal to Schaefer and not the company.
There is a rift between Schaefer and Golden Boy president Oscar De La Hoya, which could result in two separate companies. Arum recently mended fences with De La Hoya.
"I could work very easily with Oscar and we could put on fights together with guys who are under contract to him and Golden Boy," Arum said. "I never said I wouldn't deal with Schaefer; he said he wouldn't work with me. But that's one guy. One. I can work with Oscar no problem."
As an example, Arum said that if it turns out that Amir Khan winds up under contract to Golden Boy run by De La Hoya, Khan could be a possibility for a Pacquiao opponent as soon as this year.
