By Ryan Burton
On Saturday evening at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, Senator Manny Pacquiao will return from a brief retirement to face WBO welterweight champion Jessie Vargas in a pay-per-view fight that promoter Top Rank will distribute.
With a total of 4 world title fights airing on the pay-per-view, Top Rank chairman Bob Arum believes that the card is the best of 2016. This will be the first Pacquiao pay-per-view event in several years that Top Rank will distribute without the help of HBO or Showtime and Arum believes that the overall quality of the card will make it a good value for consumers.
"This is clearly the best card of the year. Four world title fights. They are all competitive. They are all going to be interesting and I think the main event is going to be very competitive and whoever wins I think they will win by knockout," Arum told BoxingScene.com.
The Hall of Fame promoter believes that the fight between WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire and unbeaten challenger Jessie Magdaleno has a chance to be a particularly great fight. Magdaleno reportedly had one of his best training camps ever and Arum believes that we will see the best of Magdaleno in this fight. Whether or not that is enough for him to defeat the future Hall of Famer, we will see on Saturday night.
"I think it will be a great fight. Nonito has been one of the great fighters of our time and Jessie is really serious. He always was a tremendous talent. We always knew that. His work ethic left a little to be desired but he is really serious for this one. They have him working his ass off so it should be a tremendous fight. That is another fight that you cannot predict with any certainty who is going to win the fight," said Arum.
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