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Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has requested an investigation from the Nevada attorney general into Saturday night's Pacquiao vs Bradley decision, and now tells Lem Satterfield at RingTV.com that any conspiracy theories out there that name Arum as a factor in the fight's controversial scoring are "preposterous":
"[People] who say that, 'well, Arum is faking it,' and that 'he really maneuvered this to get the rematch,' they're not alone in saying that. That is of course, not true. In fact, that's preposterous," said Arum, adding that Pacquiao's contract "has another year and a half" remaining.
Teddy Atlas floated the idea late Saturday night that perhaps there was some corruption involving Top Rank, as he said he'd heard (and made clear he could not verify) that Pacquiao was about to leave Top Rank. The last I'd heard was that Manny was signed through 2013, and that's what Arums says here.
Arum also says that Manny Pacquiao will have to decide what to do next, as the Bradley rematch is a contractual option, but a fight with Juan Manuel Marquez may be the better option:
"We have to see what the more lucrative fight to do. Manny has to see that as a choice. He fought a very close, controversial fight with Marquez that some people felt Marquez won. He fought a fight with Bradley that nobody thought he lost, other than the two judges. So we have to now convince the public that the rematch will be somewhat different. Which is an easier sell?" said Arum, adding that a fourth Pacquiao-Marquez fight would also take place on Nov. 10.
Though the Bradley fight does seem most likely to happen on November 10, really don't count out Marquez getting his fourth fight anyway. If that's the fight that makes more financial sense, it will be pushed. Tim Bradley would likely still be there next spring, were Manny to beat Marquez in November.
Manny's got a decision to make on that one, and given that that fight date is only five months away, not a ton of time to consider it, either. They'll probably want to figure it out in the next two months, at the very most.