Manny Pacquiao did not attend the post-fight news conference following his Nov. 5 victory over Jessie Vargas in Las Vegas for the WBO welterweight title.
Pacquiao received 16 stitches in his head, had to give a urine sample a second time because the first one went into a cracked cup and he had to deal with a slew of well-wishers, including Pia Wurtzbach, a Filipina who won Miss Universe in 2015.
Promoter Bob Arum got tired of waiting for Pacquiao and summarily canned the news conference while the Filipino senator was still in his dressing room.
That robbed the media of the opportunity to ask Pacquiao about a nugget that Arum dropped that night, when he said that super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko is on the short-list of potential Pacquiao opponents for 2017.
On a conference call this week to promote Lomachenko?s bout with Nicholas Walters for the WBO super featherweight title at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, Arum mentioned it again.
Lomachenko, a two-time Olympic gold medalist who is 6-1 with four knockouts as a pro, said he is interested in a Pacquiao fight, but not in his next outing.
Pacquiao is expected to fight at least twice in 2017 and Lomachenko could be the second of those.
?Lomachenko has a huge upside,? Arum said. ?This is the second world title in as many divisions in seven professional fights. That has never happened before, and he is going to win more world titles as he goes up in weight and there are going to be very interesting guys for him to fight. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that he and Manny could fight sometime next year.
?Lomachenko wants challenges and he is a tremendous talent. His upside is enormous and a lot of people are watching him, not just boxing fans, because he is an unbelievable talent. They see him on YouTube and on HBO and have said what an unbelievable talent he is.?
Arum has gone to great lengths, though, to insist that it is Pacquiao who picks his opponents. Arum said he simply presents possibilities and Pacquiao chooses.
A Pacquiao-Lomachenko fight would be fascinating on many levels, even though it would be one in which Pacquiao would have a significant size advantage. And it?s a fight that Lomachenko would have the ability to win. Pacquiao would likely be favored, and justifiably so, but Lomachenko is a mega-talent who could pull it off.
But it?s not worth spending much energy thinking about it until Pacquiao says he?d be open to it. So far, he hasn?t commented on the possibility.
Around the world of boxing:
? Watching Claressa Shields? exciting victory over Franchon Crews on Saturday in the two-time Olympic gold medalist?s pro debut showed again how short-sighted the promoters were in not including her as the primary bout on the Andre Ward-Sergey Kovalev undercard.
Shields-Crews was by far the second-most entertaining fight of the night, and interest in Shields? debut was intense.
Katie Taylor, the 2012 gold medalist from Ireland, will turn pro this week on a card promoted by Eddie Hearn in the U.K., and you can bet that Taylor will be given a prime spot on the show. View photos
Claressa Shields was victorious in her pro debut last Saturday. (Getty Images) More
Apparently, there was friction between the Ward-Kovalev co-promoters, Roc Nation Sports and Main Events, that prevented Shields? debut from being part of the pay-per-view. But promoters need to start thinking about their customers and the best interests of the sport and put these ridiculous and short-sighted feuds behind them.
? Andy Ruiz was once a hot prospect in the heavyweight division, but interest in him cooled as he struggled to get in shape and didn?t seem like he had passion for his job.
But Ruiz is 29-0 with 19 KOs and will challenge Joseph Parker on Dec. 10 in New Zealand for the vacant WBO world title. Ruiz is working with new trainer Abel Sanchez, the 2015 Yahoo Sports Trainer of the Year, and Sanchez says Ruiz is primed for a good performance.
