BOBBY PACQUIAO IN EASY BUT TOUGH SPOT
San Francisco, CA-Unfortunately, for this Pinoy, along with many other boxing fans, who booked Friday November 17th flights to Las Vegas to watch Manny Pacquiao’s fight with Erik Morales (November 18th on HBO PPV), will miss another Pacquiao, fighting that Thursday before the “Grand Finale.” Bobby “Sniper” Pacquiao returns to the ring, two years younger than Manny at 25, fresh off the most impressive win of his career, knocking out former featherweight champion, Kevin Kelley last June. The younger Pacquiao will headline a 12 round bout at the Hard Rock Casino on the new Verses network. His opponent is a familiar name to Paclanders, Hector Velasquez. Velasquez, 45-11-2 (32 KOs), fell victim to Manny Pacquiao’s vicious lefts in September 2005, but has rolled off three straight victories since then.
PEDEN SAYS BOBBY PAC BACKED AWAY FROM CLASH
While still not out of the picture entirely, the expected bout between Pacquiao and Robbie Peden will not occur this year. In a press release, Bobby’s team—consisting of Michael Koncz, Manny Pacquiao, and Wakee Salud—claims that their promotional outfit, Top Rank, could not come to terms on a deal with Goossen-Tutor Promotions, who handles the former IBF titlist Peden. Fearing losing a potential purse and fighting Peden in his native land of Australia, Team Sniper opted to fight Velasquez on Cable TV three days prior to the “big show,” Pacquiao-Morales III. Upon hearing the news, Robbie Peden sent me an email, stating he was more than willing to negotiate a fight with Pacquiao. In the email he states, “I really don’t think Bobby wanted to fight me. I was ready to fight and if they really wanted the bout they could have got it.” A bout between Pacquiao and Peden would have decided the number one contender in the IBF rankings.
