There’s just too much going inside his mind these days but Manny Pacquiao remains steadfast that he won’t grant the request of Erik Morales that they agree to a catch weight of 132 lbs when they collide for the third time on Sept. 16.
Shamed by Pacquiao’s 10th round knockout win over two weeks ago, Morales, through his promoter Bob Arum, said he will exercise a clause in the contract that mandates the Filipino to give the Mexican a third fight.
Arum has told the press that the third fight will take place on Sept. 16 probably at the Sam Boyd (Football) Stadium inside the University of Nevada-Las Vegas campus and the weight limit will be 132 lbs, not 130 as in the case in their first two bouts.
Pacquiao insists that if there’ll ever be another match that will make up the trilogy, it will be at 130 lbs. He had confided to Tempo over the weekend that there’s “no way I will fight (Morales) at 132 lbs” although his chief handler Shelly Finkel has been quoted as saying that the issue on the weight won’t be a “deal-breaker” and that it’s almost a done deal that the two are going to cross paths again in another box-office hit.
“If there’s a third fight, it will be at 130 lbs,” said Pacquiao.
It is being theorized that Team Morales is just trying to weave its way out of a third fight by demanding that they agree on 132 lbs.
In the rematch that Pacquiao won in frightening fashion, he weighed in officially at 128 1/2 lbs, while Morales came in exactly at 130 lbs and as soon as he was cleared, the Mexican drank a bottle of Gatorade.
Pacquiao said he could even make the featherweight limit of 126 lbs, but the super-feather bracket of 130 lbs is just perfect for him.
“I can make 126 lbs, but there’s going to be an effort on my part,” Pacquiao said in a separate interview.
In preparation for a possible bout with Morales, Pacquiao will figure in a tuneup tiff with either Oscar Larios or Javier Jauregui sometime in May in Manila.
“As of the moment, we are looking at Larios,” said Pacquiao during a break in signing autographs and posing for pictures with San Miguel Corporation (SMC) bigwigs and rank and file.
