By Keith Idec
LAS VEGAS – If Vasyl Lomachenko and Terence Crawford are successful in their respective upcoming fights, their promoter will present each fighter as a potential opponent to Manny Pacquiao.
Bob Arum could’ve made Pacquiao-Crawford multiple times in 2016, but Pacquiao fought Timothy Bradley a third time April 9 and Jessie Vargas on November 5. Lomachenko, the WBO’s 130-pound champion, would have to move up at least five pounds, probably 10, to secure a lucrative Pacquiao fight.
None of that will matter, of course, if Floyd Mayweather Jr. decides he wants to fight again. But Arum must operate as if Mayweather will remain retired, until the Hall-of-Fame promoter hears otherwise from Mayweather himself.
“Well, it’s possible until it’s impossible,” Arum told BoxingScene.com regarding a Mayweather-Pacquiao rematch. “And obviously it’s not possible while Floyd is still retired. So the question is – will Floyd stay retired? And that’s a question that can be answered only by Floyd. So, I mean, I have no particular insight into it.
“But obviously, if Floyd was to unretire that would be a fight we would be very interested in making, Manny against Floyd. But again, don’t read anything into it. I have absolutely no idea what Floyd is gonna do.”
The 39-year-old Mayweather emphasized repeatedly last week in Brooklyn, where the undefeated five-division champion was busy promoting a January 14 card at Barclays Center, that he won’t box again. Speculation persists within the boxing industry, though, that a Mayweather-Pacquiao rematch is inevitable and will take place sometime next year, perhaps as early as May 6 in Las Vegas.
Arum, Pacquiao’s promoter and Mayweather’s former promoter, obviously would welcome a rematch of a fight that drew a record 4.6 million pay-per-view buys and generated more than $600 million in overall revenue. Even if Mayweather-Pacquiao II suffers significantly from the public’s dissatisfaction with their first fight, which Mayweather won by unanimous decision in May 2015, it remains by far the most profitable boxing match that can be made in 2017.
Before Lomachenko and Crawford become options for Pacquiao in 2017, they must handle their scheduled business.
Ukraine’s Lomachenko (6-1, 4 KOs) must overcome Jamaica’s Nicholas Walters (26-0-1, 21 KOs) in their 12-round title fight Saturday night at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas. Crawford (29-0, 20 KOs) needs to defeat John Molina Jr. (29-6, 23 KOs), of Covina, California, in another 12-rounder for Crawford’s WBC and WBO 140-pound championships December 10 in Omaha, Nebraska, Crawford’s hometown.
HBO will televise the Lomachenko-Walters and Crawford-Molina matches.
“If Lomachenko is successful in this fight, I will talk to the Lomachenko people, figure out what weight would be acceptable,” Arum said. “And then I go to Manny and see if he was amenable, as I will do with Terence Crawford if Terence Crawford is successful on December 10th. But it’s Manny, and make no mistake about it, who chooses the opponent. And then the question is, is Mayweather gonna be available? And obviously, Mayweather trumps everything because Pacquiao would like the rematch more than any other fight.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
