Rave reviews: Arum lauds Pacquiao’s performance

Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum was among those who had earlier expressed deep concern over Manny Pacquiao fighting at the advanced age of 46.

But after watching Pacquiao’s furious stand against Mario Barrios in Las Vegas, Arum expressed his amazement over his former fighter’s eye-popping performance that almost netted him the World Boxing Council (WBC) welterweight crown.

“I dreaded the fight before it happened,” Arum told FightHype, noting the eight-division legend’s age and his long layoff as primary reasons.

“I thought he could be in trouble. I don’t want to see Manny Pacquiao, who I consider a great friend (get hurt). I didn’t want to see him hurt,” the 93-year-old Harvard-educated lawyer said.

But Pacquiao, whose last fight was a unanimous decision defeat to Cuban Yordenis Ugas in August 2021, stood his ground and managed to battle the 30-year-old Barrios to a 12-round majority draw.

The decision wasn’t received well by the boxing community with most observers thinking that Pacquiao did enough to earn the verdict.

But the three judges weren’t moved at all.

Steve Weisfeld and Tim Cheatham both scored it 114-114 while Max DeLuca saw it 115-113 for Barrios.

Arum said Pacquiao should have been given more credit for his valiant effort given his age.

“I think you have to give tremendous credit to Manny, at his age, for him to have performed the way he did against the much younger man,” Arum, who heads Top Rank, told FightHype.

Since he was rock-solid against Barrios, Pacquiao should be able to handle himself even against any of the welterweights around, according to Arum.

Being eyed to face Pacquiao most likely sometime in the first half of December is Rolly Romero, who reigns as the World Boxing Association champion at 147 pounds.

“I think Manny would be competitive with any of those people (at welterweight) and I think Romero, who is less of a boxer than this guy that Manny just fought, would be ideal for Manny. And I give Manny a good chance to win against Romero,” Arum added.

Pacquiao insists that he could have scored a knockout win if only he had trained a full three months — and not two months — against Barrios.

In revving up for the six-foot Barrios, Pacquiao did seven-and-a-half weeks of camp in Los Angeles after a grueling Senate election campaign that was unsuccessful.

When he makes his comeback bid to win another title, Pacquiao, who turns 47 on 17 December, said he will need 12 weeks to get ready.

And definitely, Arum won’t be as nervous as before.