ARUM CONFIRMS NO APRIL 14 FIGHT FOR PACQUIAO
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 04 Mar 2018
Top Rank CEO Bob Arum has confirmed to BoxingScene.com that Manny Pacquiao will not fight on the undercard of the WBO welterweight title fight between champion Jeff Horn and challenger Terence Crawford. "Manny Pacquiao is not on that show,'' Arum told BoxingScene on Friday afternoon.
"There are reasons... it's not that he's fighting Mike Alvarado, it has nothing to do with him potentially being on the undercard. That had never been discussed with Manny. There are good reasons why he is not fighting on April 14th and because they were told to me in confidence I'm not going to discuss it," explained the veteran promoter.
But Arum clarified that there's no friction between Manny and himself and that the Filipino icon did not say "I wanted to fight this guy, not that guy..." He added, "There's a reason he isn't on April 14th and I'll just leave it at that."
However, Mike Coppinger of RingTV.com reported that Arum was saying the eight-division world champion is not fighting because of a problem with the Internal Revenue Service. ?Pacquiao is moving off the date for now, there was a problem with Pacquiao and the IRS and all that stuff,? Arum was quoted.
As reported, Pacquiao had some issues on taxes since 2016, and he exerted efforts to minimize the amount. The writer further stated that his big fights took place in Nevada and Texas, where there are no state income taxes and in his latest fights, Pacquiao divided his training sessions in the Philippines and Los Angeles to avoid bigger taxation.
The eleven-time world champion?s last bout was held in Australia, and his last fight in the U.S. was in November 2016 against Jessie Vargas for the WBO world welterweight championship.
Pacquiao is not fighting Alvarado, reported Aquiles Zonio, Pacquiao's media relations officer, in a message to ESPN5's Lyn Olavario. "He rejected Bob Arum's offer to fight [in the] undercard of the Crawford-Horn fight. It's an insult to him. The world knew who won that dirty fight in Brisbane. It was the biggest broad daylight boxing heist."
When asked about the next Pacquiao fight, Arum replied, "That depends." The Hall of Fame promoter said Manny has a group in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia looking to put up money for him to fight, and a group in China. "If those people come up with the money, then we would do the fight and televise it on ESPN. In other words do it on a Sunday morning, so that it went on Saturday night. That's what's really going on," explained Arum.
Pacquiao had shown interest in challenging Lucas Matthysse, who recently won the WBA "regular" welterweight title by stopping Tewa Kiram in eight rounds at the Forum in Inglewood, California. That would be a world championship fight and could be put on the main event not only as a co-feature.
Arum was asked whether he will explore the possibility of a Pacquiao-Matthysse title fight. "Till the Asians show me the money, what am I exploring? There's certainly nothing wrong with a Lucas Matthysse, he's a nice kid and he's a good fighter. But I'm not exploring anything until I see the money," replied Arum.
It is still undecided when the next Pacquiao fight is, if ever he fights again. Arum told RingTV.com that he planned to let Pacquiao fight with either Crawford or Vasyl Lomachenko in the fall, but that was when the fighting senator was still scheduled to face Alvarado.
Even without Pacquiao, Top Rank will continue with Crawford-Horn title fight on April 14 in Las Vegas. But whether it will still be shown on PPV without the presence of Pacquiao, is still in question.
Arum wants to replace Pacquiao with International Boxing Federation super flyweight champion Jerwin Ancajas, who signed Top Rank to a three-fight contract. The fight would be against mandatory challenger Jonas Sultan of Cebu.
It would become the first world title bout involving Filipino fighters in 93 years. In 1925, Pancho Villa defended his flyweight title against Clever Sencio, and that was the last time two Filipinos fought for a world crown.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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