Manny Pacquiao's returning to boxing, and that's just sad

The scariest thing about the news that Manny Pacquiao is going to fight Jessie Vargas on Nov. 5 in Las Vegas is not that promoters are actually going to put that on pay-per-view.

That’s a foolhardy exercise, of course, because it’s a match that elicits little more than yawns, and is further evidence of Pacquiao sidestepping the best opposition he can find.

But the truly sad news here is that Pacquiao, who made more than $100 million to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2015, is fighting because he needs the money.

He’s got multi-million dollar homes in the U.S. and in the Philippines and drives cars that cost more than the average person makes in four years, but here he is about 15 months from that staggering payday admitting he needs the dough.

He’s always been generous with his money, and has given much to charities in the Philippines. He’s built schools and churches and given many of his down-on-their-luck countrymen a handout in an effort to do the right thing.

But still … he’s fighting because he needs the money? Even with taxes and expenses and his trainer’s share and his manager’s share cut out, Pacquiao made in excess of $100 million to fight Mayweather last year. He made another sizeable chunk in April when he fought Timothy Bradley.

And yet, here he is, admitting he can’t survive on a politician’s salary.

“Boxing is my main source of income,” he told reporters in the Philippines. “I can’t rely on my salary as public official. I’m helping the family of my wife and my own family, as well. Many people also come to me to ask for help, and I just couldn’t ignore them.”

Remember, this is a guy who has made more than $250 million in his career, perhaps as much as $400 million, and yet he’s got to fight to pay the bills and do the things he wants.

Whatever you think of the match with Vargas, that’s incredibly sad.

Pacquiao is a member of the Filipino senate now, and is going to train and promote the fight in his free time.

This seems like a brilliant plan if you’re trying to bankrupt your promoter: Fight an opponent no one is asking to see, do it when you are largely unavailable to publicize the fight and ask people to pay their hard-earned money to watch.

This isn’t going to be good.

There is no shtick to sell this fight, and without a shtick, someone is going to take a bath.

Professional boxing at the highest level has always been far more about the sizzle than the steak.

It’s never really been about the best fighting the best, as boxing purists and media have naively believed over this last quarter of a century, though.

It’s all about marketing a product and creating a narrative that will sell. Come up with an angle, true or even partly true, and market that to the hilt.

If it turns out a fight is a competitive one that fans want to see, that’s all the better. The cold, hard truth, however, is that professional boxing is about creating and managing a brand and not so much what goes on in the ring.

There already has been, and will be, outrage that Pacquiao chose Vargas for the WBO welterweight title over Terence Crawford, the super lightweight champion who is far more highly regarded.

If this were a sport like the NFL or the NBA, Pacquiao would be fighting Crawford, who is one of the top-five pound-for-pound fighters in the world.

Top Rank did a brilliant job making Pacquiao into a brand, and he became such a big star at one point that it almost didn’t matter who he fought. It was going to sell in big numbers.

But his story is tired and old. It’s more than a decade since he first ran for office. That he’s a senator now is a minor twist, but not one that commands much attention.

His “singing career” appears to be over. Like Oscar De La Hoya before him, Pacquiao seems one and done with the albums.

Most significantly, he’s no longer the exciting fighter he once was. His unusual story, going from a street urchin who sold donuts on the corner to make money to running away from home so he could box, drew us in. His brilliant talent and breathtaking fights kept us coming back.

He hasn’t had a knockout in nearly seven years. He’s 4-3 in his past seven fights and was knocked cold by Juan Manuel Marquez and outclassed by Floyd Mayweather Jr. When is the last time he looked sensational in victory? You probably have to go back to Nov. 12, 2011, when he beat Marquez at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in the third of their four-fight series to find a bout he won in which he looked outstanding.

Top Rank CEO Bob Arum, of course, doesn’t want to lose badly, and he’ll pretty much do anything to promote the show. That apparently includes once again talking to boxing reporters.

Arum was so angered by news stories and columns he didn’t like prior to Crawford’s fight in Las Vegas with Viktor Postol that he went on a media strike.

In that bout’s aftermath, he took to Twitter, mostly tweeting about his support for Hillary Clinton in the presidential race. When reporters called him to discuss boxing issues, he’d say he’d talk politics but not boxing, and hang up.

Now, though, with a tough sell ahead of him, Arum is back. He’ll probably have a camera installed in the senate so fight fans can watch Pacquiao doing his thing in Manila.

I wonder, though, if Arum knows how many people watch C-SPAN? It’s not a rated channel, but it’s a safe bet that viewership is not particularly impressive.

Few in boxing history have had the ability to turn nothing into something like Arum. Even as he closes in on his 85th birthday, he has the ability to come up with storylines that attract media attention, which the fight promotion business needs as regularly as the human body needs oxygen.

He’s been dealt a losing hand, though.

And sadly, it looks like Pacquiao has, too. By all accounts, he’s in no danger of going into the poorhouse anytime soon.

But the fact he concedes he needs to fight to maintain his lifestyle says much.

It’s a sad story that hopefully doesn’t turn out the way so many others in boxing have over the years.