World wants Pacquiao vs Marquez ? Sulaiman
THE WORLD still awaits but World Boxing Council (WBC) president Jose Sulaiman is convinced the dream fight between mandatory challenger Manny Pacquiao and reigning super-featherweight king Juan Manuel Marquez will soon be made.
“This is the fight that the world wants,” said Sulaiman at the close of the 45th WBC convention at the Manila Hotel yesterday.
“And I believe that Manny wants to prove once and for all that he is the one and only Manny Pacquiao and (he) has a tremendous opportunity to become champion of the world,” Sulaiman added.
Sulaiman admitted that he didn?t have a chance to personally tell Pacquiao ? when they met during Monday?s opening rites ? about the significance and magnitude of going for Marquez?s 130-lb crown “because he looked busy and his mind was somewhere else.”
A clearer picture as to who Pacquiao is going to face next will be painted within the next couple of weeks.
Bob Arum of Top Rank, which promotes the 28-year-old Pacquiao, revealed a few days ago that it would be a choice involving Marquez, the winner of the Joan Guzman-Humberto Soto clash on Saturday night (Sunday in Manila) in New Jersey and current WBC lightweight champion David Diaz.
Arum has a promotional contract with Soto and Diaz, while Oscar De La Hoya?s Golden Boy Promotions (GBP) has close promotional ties with the New York-based Guzman, who is actually a native of the Dominican Republic.
Still, Sulaiman, who has been ruling the Mexico-based governing body for the last 32 years, is not the type to put to pressure on Pacquiao, who holds the fringe WBC International 130-lb title that he has defended against the likes of Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera.
“I am not forcing him but I just want to make clear the importance of becoming a (WBC) world champion.”
Still, Sulaiman believes that the WBC International championship that Pacquiao currently holds is “much better than those being held by other boxers in the other boxing bodies.”
Despite not being a world champion, Pacquiao is not only widely acknowledged as the premier superfeatherweight but the best fighter in the world pound-for-pound.
