As Vasyl Lomachenko embarks on the first defense of his WBO super featherweight title against the respected Nicholas Walters, promoter Bob Arum has been telling anyone who will listen that, down the line, we could see a fight between the uber-talented Ukrainian and Manny Pacquiao, the current WBO welterweight beltholder.
Really?
?Why not?? asked Arum, last week. Well, how ?bout the fact they are a few weight classes apart?
?Do you know who much food Manny consumes in order to keep his weight at 144 when he?s training?? asked the CEO of Top Rank Promotions, pointing out that the ?Pac-Man? weighed 144.75 pounds for his bout on Nov. 5 versus Jessie Vargas. ?For Manny to be at 138 or 140 is nothing ? he won?t have to eat as much.
?It?s one thing if a guy is training and has to watch what he?s eating as far as being on the low side in order to make weight but Manny is the opposite,? continued Arum. ?You talk to (trainer) Freddie (Roach) and he says he?s never seen anyone consume so much food because he?s got to keep his weight up. So Manny is a natural 135 or ? at worst ? a 140 (-pounder). So yeah, why couldn?t that fight happen??
That said, is this match-up THAT inconceivable?
If you go back to recent history, there is actually precedent for it and ironically it involves Pacquiao. Back in December of 2008, he squared off against Oscar De La Hoya and launched himself into superstardom by stopping the ?Golden Boy? ? and ending his career, it turned out ? by dominating him over eight rounds. Coming into that promotion, that bout was looked upon as a physical mismatch. After all, Pacquiao won his first belt at flyweight and Oscar had basically been campaigning as a full-fledged 154-pounder since 2001 (which included a short foray as a middleweight in 2004 as he challenged Felix Sturm and Bernard Hopkins).
Coming into 2008, Pacquiao began that year by rematching Juan Manuel Marquez for the latter?s WBC 130-pound title. Then, a few months later, Pacquiao captured the WBC lightweight crown by stopping David Diaz. At that point, a welterweight bout with De La Hoya (who had not made the 147-pound weight limit since 2001 when he faced Arturo Gatti) was consummated. It was clear on that evening at the MGM Grand that, as brilliant as Pacquiao was, De La Hoya looked like a drained fighter, as he eventually quit on the stool.
For that fight, the Filipino icon tipped the scales at 142 pounds.
Currently, Lomachenko is a 130-pounder and Pacquiao just weighed in at 144-and-change, basically making him a ?tweener amid junior welterweight and welterweight. Egis Klimas, who manages Lomachenko, says the immediate goal for his fighter is to win a title at lightweight before his 10th pro fight. Currently, Lomachenko?s record stands at 6-1 (4).
The reality is there is still that potential rematch with Floyd Mayweather Jr. and a pairing against unified junior welterweight champion Terence Crawford out there for Pacquiao. The Crawford bout might be deemed more credible by the public and perhaps better business. While Crawford is a bona fide draw in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska (and he?ll headline there again at the CenturyLink Center on Dec. 10 in front of another large throng), this upcoming bout with Walters ? the former WBA featherweight titlist, who certainly isn?t going to lie down and play dead ? is taking place in a theater at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, that holds less than 2,000 patrons.
But should the 28-year-old Lomachenko get this assignment, Arum believes a catchweight between 135 and 140 pounds can be arranged. ?Ultimately, it?s something that will be talked about between Freddie Roach and Manny,? said the veteran promoter.
TOP RANK
You may have heard that this is Bob Arum?s 2000th event as a boxing promoter and, while the first bout he promoted took place in 1966, when Muhammad Ali faced George Chuvalo in Toronto, it wasn?t till 1973 that he incorporated the company now known as Top Rank. The company name wasn?t exactly his idea.
?Fred Hofheinz?s wife named it,? said Arum. ?It sounded great. She named it and Fred liked it and so I went along with it. He was my partner and he sold me his shares when he became mayor of Houston and his father Judge Roy Hofheinz owned the Astrodome.?
Arum was asked what the biggest fight or event he had promoted thus far was, and he answered, ?Well, the difference between fights and events, y? know, sometimes you have great events and the fights don?t turn out as good as other events that were big but the fights were great. So, for example, (Marvelous Marvin) Hagler-(Thomas) Hearns is the best fight that I did. Ali-(Joe) Frazier III was one of of the best fights that I did, (Alexis) Arguello-(Aaron) Pryor; that list goes on and on. But for events, Hagler-(Sugar Ray) Leonard was not a great fight but a great event.?
