A DEAL is currently in the works for the staging of a Manny Pacquiao-Marco Antonio Barrera rematch at the historic Araneta Coliseum in a sure-fire fight card that ? if it pushes through ? could be worthy of the stature of ?Thrilla in Manila Part II.?
Sportsman Rudy Salud met with the Asian representative of Transcontinental Entertainment Inc. chairman Louis J. Pearlman Saturday at the EDSA Shangri-La Plaza Hotel in initial negotiations for the match tentatively set on the first week of April.
According to Salud, Pearlman is the architect behind celebrated boy bands ?NSYNC, Backstreet Boys and teen sensation Britney Spears and wants to venture into boxing, not so much to make money as to prop up a tarnished image in the US.
The group approached Salud to handle the local end of the promotion on the recommendation of Freddie Roach, the American trainer who worked Pacquiao?s corner in the Filipino lefty?s five fights in the US. Roach is reportedly a close friend of Pearlman.
