A major sports network included Manny Pacquiao in the top 15 of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world.
Boxing columnist Tim Graham ranked Pacquiao fifth on the ESPN.com list, making the Filipino the only fighter weighing less than 140 lb to make it to the top five.
Only the likes of light-welterweight Floyd Mayweather, light-heavyweight Antonio Tarver and light-middleweight Winky Wright were ahead of Pacquiao.
Bernard Hopkins, who is scheduled to fight Oscar de la Hoya in a mega-buck fight Saturday night in Las Vegas, is ranked No. 1 on the ESPN list.
Dual champion Juan Manuel Marquez and super-featherweight Erik Morales, two Mexicans who shunned the possibility of getting in the ring with Pacquiao this year, were ranked sixth and ninth, respectively.
But Pacquiao?s growing reputation around boxing circles is proving to be more a liability as the left-handed power hitter from General Santos remains without a definite fight schedule.
Murad Muhammad, Pacquiao?s US-based promoter, however, claimed on Friday that a major boxing promotion has contacted Muhammad for a possible playdate with the super-bantamweight champion of the World Boxing Council (WBC).
Richard Schaefer the executive director of Golden Boy Promotions, reportedly opened the possibility of matching their own Oscar Larios of Mexico with Pacquiao in November.
Larios, who owns a 53-3-1 record with 35 knockouts, hasn?t lost in nearly four years.
According to an item on mannypacquiao.ph, Muhammad is set to announce ?the outcome of negotiations? early next week. He also allegedly has another ?option in mind,? should the talk with Larios fall apart.
Muhammad cited that difficulty in signing up a worthy opponent for Pacquiao is not an isolated case, saying that the lack of marquee playdates for big-name fighters can happen to anyone.
?[Floyd] Mayweather Jr., Vernon Forrest and Antonio Tarver are just some examples. They, too, have no fight schedules later this year,? said Muhammad.
Light-heavyweight Tarver owns the WBC belt. Mayweather won the title eliminator for the WBC light-welterweight championship.
Forrest has failed twice in his attempt to snatch the WBC and World Boxing Association welterweight belts from Ricardo Mayorga of Nicaragua.
Pacquiao neither owns a belt nor has he been on a losing skid.
