SHAVEN-SKULLED bomber Joan Guzman is aching to get it on with Manny Pacquiao and top Rank big boss Bob Arum said he’ll sit down with the handlers of the New York-based Dominican Republic native soon so they could dot the Is and cross the Ts for a proposed match on Oct. 6 possibly in Macau.
“They definitely want the fight,” Arum told the Bulletin from Memphis where Top Rank is putting on a show this weekend.
“We will discuss the finer details” and a result of the negotiations will be known in a week or so, said Arum, who was recently in the country to root for Pacquiao’s ambitious congressional bid in the first district of South Cotabato that has apparently failed.
Informed about Arum’s plan to pit Pacquiao with Guzman, who holds a 27-0 win-loss card with 17 knockouts, top trainer Freddie Roach initially thought it couldn’t be arranged since Guzman is promoted by Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions.
But he immediately realized that GBP has a minor say in Guzman and it is the southern California-based Sycuan Promotions that has a huge stake in Guzman’s career.
“Oh, yeah,” Roach said when told about Guzman being also represented by Sycuan Promotions.
Roach wants Pacquiao to face off with Marco Antonio Barrera first since it remains a fight that people would still want to see either live or on pay-per-view not because he is wary of what the 31-year-old Guzman could bring to the ring.
“Manny can handle Guzman,” said Roach.
Meanwhile, somebody privy to the court case between Top Rank and GBP said the Los Angeles-based GBP will emerge triumphant over the promotional rights to Pacquiao.
“At the end of the day I believe Golden Boy is going to win big,” said the boxing man.
“Arum and Manny will be deposed in June,” he said, noting that both personalities will have to deliver their sworn statements soon before US lawyers.
