SPORTS SHORTS 25: HOLYFIELD WANTS TO COACH MCGREGOR AGAINST PACQUIAO, BUT SPENCE DOWNPLAYS THE FIGHT
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 15 Jan 2021
Evander Holyfield has announced he would readily coach UFC superstar Conor McGregor for a PPV earning fight with Manny Pacquiao. Holyfield is open to helping the Irish MMA celebrity train for Pacman, was quoted by SunSport: "If I was asked then I would go out to him and say to him, 'You know what, do this thing. The thing is that I’m not a coach.'" He added he can give him good advice. "But I’d have someone else hold the hand pads. I don’t know how to hold hand pads! I came up hitting hands pads."
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"Pacquiao won’t have to think much as it’s going to be a boxing match compared to Conor McGregor," Holyfield added. The former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world believes Pacquiao will beat McGregor but he’s not disregarding the Irishman's strong points. "He has reach advantage,” Holyfield said. “So he has to keep Pacquiao to the side and throw the punches straight, which is going to be difficult. You’re talking about fighting somebody who has been doing boxing their whole life.”
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Manny Pacquiao has good intentions in facing Conor McGregor. The senator said he wants "to experience fighting an MMA [mixed martial artist]” and added" I will also donate a big portion of my income to Filipino Covid-19 victims.” But Errol Spence was not excited. "Nobody care bout none of that,” stated Spence in his Twitter account.
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Spence was criticized by netizens. One comment reads: “This man is ducking Crawford". Another one added: “Won’t fight Thurman, won’t fight Charlo but wants an old Pacquiao.” One reader commented: "We don’t care about who u fight next unless it’s Terence Crawford." There were those who urged Pacquiao to stop aiming at McGregor: "Pick one: @ErrolSpenceJr or @terencecrawford so we can be a step closer to undisputed.”
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The first two boxing events of 2021 for Top Rank will remain in its home base Las Vegas, with ESPN live telecasts on February 13 and February 20 from an MGM venue. Both schedules were formally approved by the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) during its monthly agenda hearing on Wednesday.
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The February 13 show will be headlined by a vacant light heavyweight title fight between Joe Smith Jr. (26-3, 21KOs), age 31 years, of Long Island, New York and Russia’s Maksim Vlasov (45-3, 26KOs), age 34 years, of Samara, Russia. One week later on February 20, Miguel Berchelt (38-1, 34KOs), age 29 years, of Cancún, Mexico will have the seventh defense of his WBC super featherweight title versus Oscar Valdez (28-0, 22KOs), age 30 years, of Nogales, Mexico.
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IBF, WBC Franchise, WBA, WBO lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez is targeting a possible clash with the WBA, IBF lightwelterweight champion Josh Taylor, age 30 years, from Edinburgh, United Kingdom. Taylor (17-0, 13 KOs) is being arranged for a full weight division unification with WBC, WBO champion Jose Ramirez of Hanford, California. Lopez is hoping Taylor will come out the victor and then he will face him in the ring. "They got to make that happen. Absolutely. I would love to do that fight in the UK. The main guy I do want to win from that fight is Josh Taylor," Lopez told BBC Radio.
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Lopez (16-0, 12 KOs), age 23 years, of Brooklyn, New York says he is the rightful winner against Ukraine's Vasiliy Lomachenko and there's no argument abput that. "We beat him fair and square, we beat him clearly," said Lopez. "Had this fight been a split decision, then yes, we could talk about something but this turned out to be a unanimous decision for a reason. We outboxed the boxer, we beat the boxer, now it's on to bigger and better things." Lopez will have a mandatory defense from the IBF with unbeaten George Kambosos (19-0, 10 KOs), age 27 years, of Sydney, Australia.
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Here are the top 10 biggest pay-per-view fights in the world of boxing and UFC:
1. Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao
Date: May 2, 2015
Venue: MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas
Event billing: Fight of the Century
PPV buys: 4.6 million
Revenue: $410 million
2. Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor
Date: August 26, 2017
Venue: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas
Event billing: The Money Fight
PPV buys: 4.3 million
Revenue: $600 million’.
3. Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Conor McGregor
Date: October 6, 2018
Venue: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas
Event billing: UFC 229
PPV buys: 2.5 million
Revenue: $86.4 million
4. Floyd Mayweather vs. Oscar De La Hoya
Date: May 5, 2007
Venue: MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas
Event billing: The World Awaits
PPV buys: 2.4 million
Revenue: $136 million
5. Floyd Mayweather vs. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez
Date: September 14, 2013
Venue: MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas
Event billing: The One
PPV buys: 2.2 million
Revenue: $50 million
6. Mike Tyson vs. Evander Holyfield II
Date: June 28, 1997
Venue: MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas
Event billing: The Sound and the Fury
PPV buys: 1.99 million
Revenue: $100.2 million
7. Lennox Lewis vs. Mike Tyson
Date: June 8, 2002
Venue: Pyramid Arena, Tennessee
Event billing: Lewis–Tyson: Is On
PPV buys: 1.97 million
Revenue: $112 million
8. Nate Diaz vs. Conor McGregor II
Date: August 20, 2016
Venue: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas
Event billing: UFC 202
PPV buys: 1.65 million
Revenue: $95 million
9. Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir II
Date: July 11, 2009
Venue: Mandalay Bay Events Center, Las Vegas
Event billing: UFC 100
PPV buys: 1.6 million
Revenue: $75 million
10. Mike Tyson vs. Evander Holyfield
Date: November 9, 1996
Venue: MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas
Event billing: Finally
PPV buys: 1.59 million
Revenue: $79 million
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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