A POSSIBLE bout between International Boxing Federation (IBF) super featherweight champion Malcolm Klassen and superstar Manny Pacquiao would be sanctioned if and when the bout takes place in Macau, China, on April 28.
Klassen (19-3-2, 10 KOs) who hails from South Africa, holds the IBF 130-lb title, and is reportedly being short-listed as a possible opponent for Pacquiao.
IBF Championship Chair Lindsey Tucker, in a message to this writer from his office in New Jersey, informed that the IBF “would love to have that fight,” citing that Pacquiao is not unfamiliar with the IBF having been its former super bantam title holder.
Pacquiao had reigned as the IBF super bantam titlist from 2001 to 2003, winning the title with a sixth-round TKO over overwhelming favorite Lehlo Ledwada.
However, Tucker said Klassen has been ordered to fight top-ranked Mzonke Fana next, although he brought up the possibility of facing Pacquiao instead.
“There is always a chance that Klassen could ask for an exception,” Tucker explained on how to go about a possible clash between Pacquiao and Klassen.
Fana is the same fighter who had been manhandled by Mexican icon Marco Antonio Barrera in two rounds in 2005.
Klassen, according to Pacquiao, is one of the names being floated as his next foe, along with such little-known fighters as Guadalupe Rosales, Agnaldo Nunes, Nobuhiro Honmo, Francisco Lorenzo and Yusuke Kobori.
