Pacquiao wants Ra'eese Aleem to have home title shot at Angelo Leo

Manny Pacquiao’s MP Promotions is aiming to take its IBF featherweight title contender Ra’eese Aleem to a home-state title shot against Angelo Leo in the second weekend of May after winning a Tuesday purse bid.

MP Promotions executive Sean Gibbons said record eight-division champion Pacquiao was awake at 3:30 a.m. in General Santos City, Philippines, to monitor the purse-bid process and was “very thrilled to make another world champion under MP Promotions.

“When Manny formed MP Promotions, he remembered a lot of things with different promoters and said, ‘I’m going to make sure the fighters get treated right and have the best opportunities.’” noted Gibbons, Pacquiao’s longtime confidant. “He put the bid at $227,100 to give Aleem the feeling, ‘I’m the champion,’ even though he’s the challenger.”

Aleem 22-1 (12KOs) is meeting a road warrior in Leo 26-1 (12KOs), however. 

The Albuquerque, New Mexico, product ventured to Osaka, Japan, in May to defeat Tomoki Kameda by majority decision in his first title defense.

“Congratulations to Pacquiao Promotions on winning the purse bid. We look forward to working with them,” said ProBox founder and BoxingScene owner Garry Jonas. “Angelo Leo has proven to be very resilient. He’s gone to Japan and prevailed. We’ll go wherever they bring this fight and we’ll prevail there, too.”

Gibbons said he’d like to bring the fight somewhere “out of a casino” near Aleem’s hometown of Muskegan, Michigan, which is a short drive from Floyd Mayweather Jnr’s hometown of Grand Rapids.

Aleem, 35, trains in Las Vegas. He was assigned to Japan in his most recent bout, too. 

A 10th-round knockdown paved the way for an upset unanimous decision win over previously unbeaten Mikito Nakano in an IBF eliminator in November.

“It’s a great story: Hometown kid goes to Las Vegas to chase his boxing dreams, and now comes home for a world-title challenge,” Gibbons said. “Now he’s come full circle.”

Pacquiao’s hope is that the supportive surrounding will swing the outcome in Aleem’s favor, Gibbons said.

“Manny’s a competitive guy and wanted to win,” Gibbons said. “Some might say we bid a little high, but Manny – whether he’s boxing, playing chess, playing billiards or doing a purse bid – he’s a winner.”

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.