Loma May Return as P4P King; Manny Could Lose Rear Post
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 13 Jul 2020
With Canelo Alvarez return to action still in a haze albeit the possibility of him being paired with a "soft touch", Vasily Lomachenko, if victorious in his still to be rescheduled high profile fight versus the still undefeated Teofimo Lopez could be poised to retake the Ring pound for pound top position.
The bad news is Manny Pacquiao could lose his hold of the rear position in the pound for pound top ten ranking if he does not have even a planned fight for the last semester of the year.
Alvarez has been the Ring pound for pound topnotcher since his disputed points win over Gennady Golovkin in 2018 which he reinforced with back to back knockout title victories over Sergei Kovalev and Rocky Fielding last year.
But he has not fought since then.
Words from his camp talked of a plan for two fights between September and December but the consensus was that he would be first back possibly in a low profile middleweight title defense against any of a number of handpicked opponents that included Billy Joe Sunders, John Ryder and Tureano Johnson.
After that, he is supposed to rebound with a big, high profile fight at yearend possibly against Caleb Plant, Sergei Derevyanchenko or a third meeting with Golovkin.
But everything is still hazy at this point with coveror DAZN also having its say on the matter.
Should that push through though, it will not be as impressive as his accomplishments in the past two years that propel him past Lomachenko at the pound for pound totem pole.
Meanwhile Lomachenko has since 2018 almost swept all the belts at lightweight, defeating Jorge Linares and Jose Pedraza and defending them against Anthony Crolla and Luke Campbell, generally in decisive, highly impressive fashion.
He was contracted to face Lopez until the global Covid 19 pandemic lockdown forced a halt on all sporting events, among many other human activities last March.
With boxing getting back in the US with Bob Arum, Loma's chief backer and promoter, leading the charge in the aftermath of the Covid lockdown, Vasily figures to get his postponed showdown with Lopez among Arum's immediate top priority agenda.
Arum himself is looking at September for the start of big live arena boxing's return particularly in the Las Vegas area with Lomachenko, Naoya Inoue and Terrence Crawford, his big three, as main stellar attraction.
Lomachenko's fight versus Lopez could be what the fans want the most followed by Inoue's also postponed unification versus WBO titlist Johnriel Casimero which many people in the States also are very eager to see. Crawford has yet to land a big name opponent after negotiations to get Manny Pacquiao and later Yurdenis Ugas went nowhere.
Arum though is confident that all three of his boxing stars separately could entice the fans to go to the fight arenas or subscribe to pay per view to see them in action again.
Meanwhile, Manny Pacquiao, who last fought nearly a year ago and who has not made any definite plan and commitment to return to the ring anytime soon, may even lose his number ten spot in the Ring pound for pound ranking due to extended inactivity.
Close at his heels are UK's unified world junior welterweight champion Josh Taylor, erstwhile pound for pound topnotcher Roman Gonzalez and the streaking Kosei Tanaka who many Ring Magazine panelists have been batting for inclusion or re-inclusion in their elite list.
Two of the three have definite fight plans ahead with Gonzalez angling for a unification versus Juan Francisco Estrada and Tanaka eyeing his fourth world title against fellow Japanese Kazuto Ioka.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
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