PACQUIAO WANTS TO FIGHT MATTHYSSE BUT ARUM IS FINALIZING AN ALVARADO MATCH IN LAS VEGAS
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 16 Feb 2018
Bob Arum announced that the Terence Crawford-Jeff Horn and Manny Pacquiao-Mike Alvarado doubleheader will not happen at Madison Square Garden as earlier reported. The ESPN pay-per-view event scheduled for April 14 instead is bound for one of MGM Resorts International?s venues in Las Vegas. Mandalay Bay is the hotel where Pacquiao prefers to stay when he fights in Las Vegas, but Arum was not definite of the exact site. The Top Eank boss anticipated to usher the card to Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, but there are two boxing cards scheduled for April at Barclays Center in nearby Brooklyn.
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Top Rank will present on March 17 an event top billed by junior welterweights Amir Imam and Jose Ramirez at The Theater at Madison Square Garden. Arum also stated that Top Rank plans to showcase Vasyl Lomachenko?s next fight, possibly against WBA lightweight champ Jorge Linares, again at the Madison Square Garden on May 12. Junior welterweights Adrien Broner and Omar Figueroa Jr. are scheduled to fight on April 21 card at the Barclays Center. To follow a week later, middleweight contender Daniel Jacobs is slated to face Maciej Sulecki in an April 28 main event at Barclays Center. ?It?s a bit much, even for New York, particularly with all the stuff going on at Barclays,? Arum said. ?For us to come there in March, April and May, that?s a lot.?
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Last month, Argentinean champ Lucas Matthysse announced his intention to face eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao, following his eight round TKO of Tewa Kiram at The Forum in Los Angeles, California. Matthysse (39-4, 36 KOs) seized the WBA regular welterweight title. Golden Boy Promotions President Eric Gomez stated that they would not hamper Matthysse's planned showndown in ESPN, if the Pacquiao match pushes through. Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach also approves the fight and made a talk with one of Matthysse's team members.
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"I love that fight, one of his trainers was here the other day," said Roach to BoxingScene.com. "I took [his trainer] downstairs [at the Wild Card Boxing Club], I gave him the tour a little bit, he pointed at a picture of Pacquiao and said, 'We want him' and I said, 'I would love for you to have him.'" Roach added that he thinks it will be a great fight between two guys who are a little bit older and not as big of punchers as they once were, but will be a very good action-packed fight.
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Pacquiao (59-7-2, 38 KO's) is slated to battle former world champion Mike Alvarado (38-4, 26 KO) in April, but he wants to face the Argentinian world titlist. ?I want Matthysse,? Pacquiao told the Manila Bulletin. ?This is the fight that I like?a fight fans would also like to see. I can fight in April or even May."
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Arum added that he is close to finalizing a deal for Pacquiao to battle Alvarado on April 14. ?We?re making progress on it,? Arum said. ?I?m gonna talk to Michael [Koncz] and hopefully wrap it all up.? Arum?s Top Rank promotes Pacquiao and Alvarado. Golden Boy Promotions holds Matthysse. In Arum's view, Pacquiao taking Alvarado would be more comfortable because he?s relatively low-risk, and the revenues and promotions are exclusively in Top Rank without having to deal with Golden Boy Promotions.
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The 37-year-old Alvarado was not having a favorable career in 2013-15, losing three straight fights to Ruslan Provodnikov, Juan Manuel Marquez, and Brandon Rios. He was looking awful and not on his usual fighting form in the third bout with Rios. He quit in his corner during the fight with Provodnikov and Rios.
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Alvarado made a comeback in 2016, after over a year of inactivity, and won four straight fights against lesser opponents. Top Rank is looking for a big fight for him, even if that will a big gamble as a loss would mean a retirement from his ring exploits. But for the 39-year-old Pacquiao, a win against Alvarado is not far-fetched, much less a long awaited knockout victory.
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But Pacquiao wants to fight Matthysse because he is a WBA world welterweight champion and the senator loves to be welterweight king again. The fight could carry a bigger purse. And in the event he faces Terence Crawford or Jeff Horn, the winner of the WBO title clash, it will be headlined as a battle of welterweight champions.
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A fighter from Thailand could surpass Floyd Mayweather's iconic 50-0 career mark. WBC mini-flyweight champion Wanheng Meenayotin is currently on 49-0 when he defeated Japan's Tatsuya Fukuhara by unanimous decision on November 25, 2017. He fought five times last year and also won over Indonesian Jack Amisa, Tanzanian Omari Kimweri, and Filipinos Jeysever Abcede and Melvin Jerusalem all by unanimous decision. On November 6, 2014, he won his first world title when he defeated Mexico's Oswaldo Novoa by ninth-round corner retirement to win the WBC mini-flyweight title.
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But Meenayotin is not the only Thai approaching the historic 50 mark. Petch Sor Chitpattana is only 24 but already amassed a perfect 45-0 professional record. His fighting name is Petch CPFreshmart and competes in the bantamweight division. Chitpattana recently scored his 45th straight victory against a winless Vietnamese foe. However, the seemingly impressive record had all of his matches fought in Thai territory and mostly scored on unknown and less impressive opponents. The Thai boxer has never challenged for a world title and three of his last five opponents were having their professional debuts. Yet he is currently ranked number three contender in the WBC bantamweight rankings. It remains to be seen if Petch will be offered a world title shot before reaching Mayweather?s 50-0 record.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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