Pacquiao vs Marquez – Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has addressed the debated Manny Pacquiao vs Juan Manuel Marquez V offer once and for all after a total of seven years.
Arum spoke exclusively to WBN after two previous articles where the Marquez firstly stated the paycheck for a fifth fight with Pacquiao could have been $150 million dollars.
Disputing the claim made in Las Vegas earlier this year, a follow-up was written to dispute the $150 million Pacquiao vs Marquez V fee as a slip of the tongue.
It proved to be a highly-popular story that went viral the world over. Therefore, WBN decided to put that to Arum in the hope it would be finally cleared up.
Asked point-blank whether a purse of $100 million or above was ever put up for Pacquiao vs Marquez V to allow a revenge mission, Arum attempted to give some clarity.
It came as Pacquiao badly wanted to avenge his stunning knockout loss to Marquez at the MGM Grand in the summer of 2012.
Their fourth meeting, the KO represented a first win from the saga for Marquez. The Mexican superstar had felt hard-done-by due to previous decisions.
Bob Arum on $100m
“Listen, I discussed it with my people in the company. You know, what Marquez is talking about. Because I know that we offered him either six or seven million dollars (for the fifth fight), which was far more than he ever made for the fourth fight,” Arum exclusively explained to World Boxing News.
“The offer was made within a year of Marquez scoring the knockout. It was, Obama had just won the election. So that would have been 2012 into 2013. Something like that.
“So we offered him six million. Then I know we went up to eight or nine (million), something like that.”
Continuing on Marquez giving several interviews mentioning nine-figure sums, Arum stated: “I believe Marquez might have been talking about pesos.
“It’s my belief because that’s how he talks. At that time, pesos is about fourteen or fifteen to the dollar, not twenty. That gets you to around 150 million pesos.
“That’s what our interaction with Marquez was.”
PACQUIAO vs MARQUEZ
Whether any kind of money in the stratosphere of $100 to 150 million would ever have been on the table, especially as Pacquiao became more desperate to get the final word, Arum did hear some whispers.
“Now, Todd (DuBoef, Top Rank Vice President at that time) said Eddie Hearn – which at that point he remembers from Fernando Beltran, that there were a lot of guys running around the world saying that they had an offer from the Middle-East. Whether it was Dubi or Abu Dhabi or Calcutta (now Kolkata).
“Maybe not so much Saudi Arabia then, but those Middle Eastern countries who were willing to put up huge amounts of money for big fights.
“One of those guys who had no credibility and we never paid attention to might have offered Marquez a $100 to $150 million, but we obviously don’t know that for a fact. That’s a separate theory.
“I think the better theory is that Marques was talking about the pesos. That’s because when you take 100 million pesos or 150 million and translate it to us dollars, that would be accurate.
“Also, Marquez is a very bright guy. He’s not a moron. He has a college degree in economics or accounting, something like that.
“Marquez is very smart. He knows the difference between a peso and a dollar. But when he’s talking to an English person, again he may not have used the word peso.
“He may have used dollars, even though he meant pesos. That’s my theory. I’m not sure, but you can get there if you convert the pesos to dollars,” concluded the Hall of Famer.
