Vancouver ?has the key ingredients? to stage a Manny Pacquiao fight despite strong competition from Las Vegas and Macau, says Canadian businessman Geofrrey Hughes.
Hughes told the Manila Bulletin over the weekend that he is planning to host a Pacquiao fight in Vancouver sometime in 2008 and that he has already briefed Pacquiao?s people and even Bob Arum of Top Rank of his desire to put up a card starring the Filipino lefty.
?The Pacific Northwest is an untapped market (for boxing),? Hughes said from Vancouver . ?Over 100,000 Filipinos reside in Vancouver and a sizeable number of Hispanic/Latinos living in the Vancouver-Seattle area.?
Hughes had already penciled the 18,000-seat GM Place in downtown Vancouver as venue of Pacquiao?s showdown with Humberto Soto for Oct. 6 during the heat of talks with Arum last June.
But when Daniel Weinstein, a retired San Francisco judge mediated, Las Vegas came to the picture and the 12,000-seat Mandalay Bay, a hotel frequently used by GBP, was booked as site of Pacquiao versus Marco Antonio Barrera.
Hughes knows that Las Vegas and even Macau, whose revenue in gaming is said to be higher than that of Sin City , are frontrunners to host Pacquiao owing to their financial resources but Hughes is undaunted.
Macau is fast becoming the destination of choice of high-rollers owing to the opening of several hotel and casinos that rival in size the best of Las Vegas .
?That?s not insurmountable. I have the strategy to deal with it,? said Hughes.
While Vancouver is the third-best city for movie-making after Los Angeles and New York it also has its share of boxing history as it was there where Muhammad Ali fought Canadian iron man George Chuvalo in 1972 in a show that was promoted by Arum.
Filipino residents of Vancouver are one of the biggest supporters of Pacquiao as shown by their turnout during Pacquiao?s fights in the US . In the event the 28-year-old Pacquiao wins the rematch against Barrera, it is expected that Top Rank and GBP will again join hands for a sure-fire Pacquiao fight in the first quarter of 2008.
?The fight after that is my target,? said Hughes.
Hughes was on the brink of co-promoting Pacquiao versus Humberto Soto but the decision by Top Rank and GBP to work together prevented him from staging it.
