Malcolm Klassen, Guadalupe Rosales, Agnaldo Nunes, Nobuhiro Honmo, Francisco Lorenzo and Yusuke Kobori.
Does one of them ring a bell?
Ask a hardcore fight fanatic and you’d be lucky to find somebody who’s going to tell you he’s heard of these guys.
Believe it or not, they’re in the running to become the opponent of Manny Pacquiao on April 28 when Top Rank puts on a show at the Wynn Casino and Hotel in Macau.
Pacquiao yesterday personally rattled off the names of these men although he missed out on one more Japanese and two others.
“There are other worthy opponents available,” Pacquiao told the Bulletin when informed about the finalization of the March 17 duel between Marco Antonio Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez.
“Besides, I don’t need Barrera and he needs me,” said Pacquiao as he was leafing through documents that contained the names of the fighters his team is looking at while relaxing at his newly-built mansion in General Santos City.
Pacquiao said Top Rank is going to make an announcement soon as to the identity of the poor fellow.
Klassen is the current International Boxing Federation super featherweight titleholder and is a holder of a 19-3-2 win-loss-draw slate with 10 knockouts. A right-hander, Klassen stands 5-4 1/2 and is from South Africa.
Also a righty, Rosales, 25, hails from Mexico and totes a 21-1-0 record with 13 wins inside the distance, while Nunes, originally from Sao Paulo, Brazil, parades a 17-1-1 mark with eight stoppages.
Honmo is the reigning Orient-Pacific Boxing Federation 130-lb titlist who has a 29-4-2 record with only five knockouts. He had won the then vacant crown with a unanimous decision over Filipino Jimrex Jaca last year.
Lorenzo, the oldest among the crop at 35 years old, is from the Dominican Republic and a holder of a 27-3 card with 14 knockouts.
Kobori, also from Japan, has an 18-2-1 ledger with nine demolitions.
Told that Venezuelan rising star Edwin Valero had just dispatched overmatched Mexican Michael Lozada in less than 72 seconds in Tokyo in a defense of his World Boxing Association 130-lb title, Pacquiao shrugged it off and even went to the extent of lambasting the quality of the unbeaten Valero’s recent victim.
“Eh uhugin naman yung tinalo ni Valero (The guy Valero beat is just a neophyte),” said the 28-year-old Pacquiao, who is the only slugger to stop Morales and Barrera.
Surprisingly, Valero is not among those being considered for the Macau bout although Top Rank big boss Bob Arum had mentioned his name following Pacquiao’s devastating knockout win over Morales last Nov. 18 in Las Vegas.
Valero boosted his win-loss card to 21-0 with 21 knockouts, including 19 in the first round.
Pacquiao had earlier labeled the victims of Valero as being “tricycle drivers.”
