After Top Rank Inc., president Bob Arum reneged on a verbal commitment for WBC/IBF super featherweight champion Erik Morales to defend his title against featherweight ?People?s Champion? Manny Pacquiao on November 6 and after Golden Boy Promotions backed out of a Pacquiao rematch with Marco Antonio Barrera, matchmaker Eric Ortiz says WBC junior featherweight champion Oscar ?Chololo? Larios is willing to step-in and fight Pacquiao.
However, there?s a catch to the proposal of Golden Boy Promotions. They reportedly want the Pacquiao-Larios fight to serve as the undercard for the Morales-Barrera showdown which, in the eyes of Pacquiao?s business manager Rod Nazario is adding insult to injury. Nazario told Viva Sports/Manila Standard ?we are ready to fight Larios or any of the top three Mexicans but not as a supporting bout.? Nazario noted that Pacquiao devastated Barrera and now they want the winner to fight on the undercard and the badly beaten fighter to be featured in the main event. He added ?no way.?
Ortiz said he had already informed promoter Murad Muhammad that Larios was ?ready to make the fight. It?s the fight Larios wants.? The 5?7? WBC junior bantamweight champion scored a lopsided ten round unanimous decision last August 20 over Ivan Alvarez whom he dropped in the eighth round. Larios won the interim title with a twelfth round TKO over Israel Vasquez, a sparring partner of Pacquiao, on May 17, 2002 and then scored a stunning first round TKO win over champion Willie Jorrin who was handled by Pacquiao?s American trainer Freddie Roach on November 1, 2002. 2002. But Pacquiao’s devastating punching power is expected to be far too much for Larios.
Should Pacquiao fight on the Morales-Barrera undercard which is slated to take place at the MGM Grand he will certainly help draw the fans, especially large numbers of Filipinos and Filipino-Americans but will earn nowhere near the big money purses he has earned in the past, forcing Team Pacquiao to consider staging a fight in Manila. Likely opponents are WBC champion Injin Chi and WBO champion Scott Harrison. However, from a financial standpoint Pacquiao is almost certain to earn a bigger purse should he agree to fight Harrison in Britain.
Pacquiao who was scheduled to arrive in Manila from his hometown in General Santos City on Saturday prior to his September 8 departure for Los Angeles to train at Roach’s Wild Card Gym along with RP super featherweight champion and younger brother Bobby Pacquiao as well as top-ranked super flyweight Z “The Dream” Gorres, postponed his trip and will now arrive in Manila on September 3. Pacquiao curtly remarked when told of the developments, “they all talk a lot but Morales, Barrera and Marquez are scared to fight me.”
