By James Slater – Pound-for-Pound king and box office superstar Manny Pacquiao will fight again on May 7th of next year, it has been reported on ESPN.com. Dan Rafael writes how Top Rank boss Bob Arum is in The Philippines visiting Pac-Man this week, and that this Friday, on Manny’s 32nd birthday, the two will officially announce who the May 7th opponent will be.
The venue also has yet to be made official, though Pac-Man will fight in America in May. The man in the opposing corner in a little under five months time will be: Juan Manuel Marquez, “Sugar” Shane Mosley or Andre Berto..
Arum says Mosley, being the most well known of the three fighters, is a good choice despite his two recent poor showings (against Floyd Mayweather and then Sergio Mora).
“He’s the guy everybody knows,” Arum said of the 39-year-old. “The downside is he has had two bad performances, but he’s still Sugar Shane.”
Arum said Marquez – who, of course, is 0-1-1 with Pac-Man – is asking for too much money.
“The problem with Marquez is the number he wants is so damn high and he hasn‘t moved off it,” Arum explained to Rafael.
This financial insistence on the part of the Mexican great may ruin his chances of landing the May fight, Arum said. However, unbeaten Andre Berto, the reigning WBC 147-pound champ, has asked for less money than Marquez and Mosley have demanded. This may give the young talent a good shot at landing the huge opportunity.
“He came in below everybody and he would be an excellent, excellent opponent,” Arum said of Berto. “But his promoter has got to get out and promote him.”
Arum is concerned too many casual fans, if they found out Pacquiao was facing Berto in May, would no know who Berto is!
So, who will Pac-Man choose? Mosley certainly feels it will be him who gets the call, but do the fans want this fight to happen? Personally, if Marquez is unavailable, I’d make Berto my pick. Pacquiao-Berto, at FULL welterweight (we don’t need a catch-weight for this one), would be a very competitive fight. Pac-Man would be going in with a young and unbeaten wannabe star, while Berto would finally prove how good he really is.
Mosley was set to face Berto a while back, but the fight unfortunately fell through. Will Mosley now leave Berto without a big-name opponent for a second time by bagging the May 7th date?