Arum favors Jeff Horn: Is Bob Arum slowly parting ways with Manny?

Not a so great weekend for Manny Pacquiao and his team as the Filipino boxing icon loses his WBO belt to a former school teacher Jeff Horn in a surprising way.

Horn arrests the eyes of the judges to win a very debatable decision.  All three judges had it 117-111, 115-113 x2 in favor of the hometown hero.

Many who observed the fight were stunned when the result was announced. Some protested that the bout was handled ineffectively and a bad decision has been called.

Horn was obviously the heavy underdog and this is a winnable fight for the Filipino pride.

But for Bob Arum, there’s no robbery or any controversies. It was an unsoiled victory for Jeff Horn who exceeded the expectations. He lived the 12-rounded bout and continue his winning venture.

5 years ago, when Pacquiao-Bradley 1 took place and Manny loses via decision, Arum was dismayed and called the judges “outrageous”. But this time, we had a totally different Uncle Bob Arum. He never criticized the officials or interrogated the result. He’s cool and embraced the decision.

“I thought it was a close fight, it could’ve gone either way,”.  “There’s an argument for the fight being 7-5 Manny — 11th round was sort of close. I thought Manny gave away early rounds.” “ Could it have been 7-5 for Manny? Yeah. But you can't argue with the result."

In a post-fight presser, the old-timer promoter defended the scorecards and blasted Pacquiao’s corner by saying that they were overconfident during the fight.

In the first two rounds two of the judges had it for Jeff, both rounds, and one judge had the first round for Jeff and the second round for Manny. So, that’s quite correct that and I thought that Jeff, watching it, had gotten off to a big lead. And then Manny came back, and then Jeff did well at the end. That’s how it was. That’s like an Ali-Fraizer fight...”

Bob Arum’s recent actions are very suspicious. Possibly, he’s sluggishly taking his ship to a new water world.

Bob Arum’s cold statement to Team Pacquiao sends a strong signal. He’s now treating Manny in a different way. Bob is now looking for a new “cash cow” to replace the 38-year-old Manny Pacquiao who’s on the brink of ending his boxing career.  

Pacquiao’s fights were handled by Bob Arum since early 2000’s.

For the veteran promoter, everything is just business. He knows where or when to invest and sees the current state of the market.

The American lawyer and boxing promoter has been in the field since 1965. So, there’s no surprise on how well he knew the game of this business.

Arum will likely open a new class and his latest potential student would be the Australian Jeff Horn. He will be sponsoring Horn’s future bouts alongside with co-promoter Duco Events.

Manny Pacquiao treated Bob Arum like a pater. He had put his trust on him and trailed his decisions by believing the whole thing will be fine on the hand of the veteran promoter. The boxing legend always depends on Arum’s conclusion.

“I’m just a fighter. I’m not a promoter. It’s My promoter’s job to work on who’ll be my next opponent” – This was Pacquiao’s favorite line at his past post fight interviews.

Maybe, that’s the worst part on Pacquiao’s end. I hope, he should had realized this when he still has a lot of time. He can have his own promotions and sell his bouts. He’s a boxing stellar and a winning machine back then. Everyone will surely buy his fights.

But now it’s too late, Pacquiao’s career is over. He’s already 38 and we’ll be lucky to see him having two to three more fights.   

I must say, Pacquiao should have listened to Floyd Mayweather Jr.