OSCAR DE LA Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions yesterday officially shut the door on a megabuck fight pitting Manny Pacquiao and Marco Antonio Barrera after announcing that a March 17 encounter between Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez on March 17 has been finalized.
The decision of Hoya’s promotional outfit to junk Pacquiao-Barrera II was announced by a boxing website yesterday quoting reliable sources within the Golden Boy camp.
GBP had set a Jan. 2 deadline for Pacquiao to accept its offer to fight Barrera and the deadline lapsed two days ago with Pacquiao’s camp not making a move, which means it is not interested in De La Hoya’s offer.
As this developed, it is now certain that Pacquiao’s first outing this year will be on April 28 in Macau against a still undetermined opponent to be chosen by Top Rank with whom the Filipino boxer had signed a promotional contract last Dec. 28.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said there are “nine viable opponents to choose from” and Pacquiao will make his 2007 debut at the newly-built Wynn Casino and Hotel in the former Portuguese teritory as what had been planned by Top Rank and Pacquiao’s MP Promotions.
Despite losing Barrera to Marquez, Arum had guaranteed Pacquiao that he will earn much more than the reported million dangled by GBP to fight Barrera.
Arum had earlier commented that a Barrera-Marquez showdown will pale in comparison with a Pacquiao-Barrera card. At the same time, he opined that there’s a huge possibility that Barrera will lose to the skillful Marquez, who battled Pacquiao to a bloody 12-round draw in May 2004.
Barrera had been saying the past months that he would like to end his career with two more fights – one of which should be against Pacquiao, who dealt him a stinging 11th-round stoppage in Nov. 2003 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
Arum had imposed his own deadline for GBP to accept his offer of a Pacquiao-Barrera fight but with GBP’s announcement, it’s unlikely that an answer is forthcoming. Arum’s deadline is Jan. 12.
Mystery clouds as to who are on the list of Pacquiao opponents for the Macau show.
A Team Pacquiao insider said “there’s a South African, a Mexican and a Japanese on the list that was given by Top Rank to Pacquiao.”
Mexican Humberto Soto has earlier been named as a candidate but another Pacquiao confidant said Arum is not keen on pairing him with the seasoned Pacquiao at this moment in time.
