Pacquiao Declines to Fight Marquez

Richard Schaefer, the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, expressed his surprise upon being informed that Many Pacquiao signed a three-paragraph letter to the WBC prepared by his adviser Michael Koncz. The letter informed WBC president Jose Sulaiman that Pacquiao was relinquishing his mandatoru status and the WBC was free to name someone else in his place.

The letter is a response to Sulaiman's calle for free negotiations or if it didn’t work, a purse bid on June 18. In effect, The Pacman has turned down a mandatory title shot at reigning WBC super featherweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez.

There are some speculations why Pacquiao would decline such a tempting offer. The first is that Team Pacquiao is not willing to accept the usual 75-25 percent split of the purse between the champion and challenger. However the challenger would usually ask the WBC to change the purse split and the WBC usually does it in cases where the challenger is so well known.

Since Team Pacquiao dismissed the offer without making any effort, suspicions abound that the decision to decline the offer was from Bob Arum. It is probable that Arum would want to have Pacquiao pullout since he had earlier wanted the WBC to name Humberto Soto whom he handles, as the mandatory challenger. Soto won a title eliminator against Ivan Valle several months ago. Should Soto beat Bobby Pacquiao in their June 9 clash at Madison Square Garden, he would be elevated to mandatory challenger status against Marquez.

Schaefer is now planning to sit down with Marco Antonio Barrera from whom Marquez won the title earlier this year to discuss the possibility of a rematch in view of Pacquiao’s decision not to fight Marquez. Golden Boy promotions have several other options including Jorge Barrios, Rocky Juarez, Joan Guzman or Edwin Valero should Barrera not wish to do the fight.