The winner of the title fight between Kell Brook and Shawn Porter originally scheduled for Aug.16 at the StubHub Center, California could be an interesting match for Manny Pacquiao, who is looking for a worthy opponent for his return fight on Nov. 22. Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum seems to be having a hard time looking outside his stable of qualified fighters under his Top Rank Promotions (TR) umbrella who could be included in his shortlist for Pacquiao’s next fight. In the welterweight limit of 147 pounds, only three fighters are under contract with TR which include Timothy Bradley, Juan Manuel Marquez and Manny Pacquiao. Floyd Mayweather, Jr. is the champion in The Ring’s Top 10 welterweight fighters, with Pacquiao as the No.1 challenger followed by Bradley and Marquez. The seven others include Shawn Porter, Kell Brook, Marcos Maidana, Keith Thurman, Robert Guerrero, Amir Khan and Devon Alexander. Almost all of these boxers are fighting under Golden Boy Promotions umbrella including Porter. Brook is being promoted by Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sports.
The reason Arum has not floated the names of Brook and Porter could be that the two were supposed to face each other in the ring on Aug. 16 but ESPN’s Dan Rafael said the fight has been moved to Sept 6. The revised schedule is too close to the Nov. 22 scheduled fight of Pacquiao, a date that could shorten his normal training period which is usually 8-10 weeks. Still, in the 147 pound welterweight limit, Arum can look at the fight schedules of the rest of the Top 10 welterweight list which include Thurman, Guerrero, Khan and Devon Alexander. Since they are all being promoted by GBP, it would be prudent for Arum to discuss the possibility of tapping anyone of them for for inclusion in the Pacquiao opponent shortlist with GBP owner Oscar de la Hoya.
