Boxing’s only eight division world champion Manny “Pac-Man” Pacquiao breaks his silence on who he would like to fight next and it’s not budding lightweight star Ryan Garcia.
The Filipino ring icon’s name has been tossed around social media by undefeated 22-year-old lightweight prospect Ryan “KingRy” Garcia.
Garcia claimed that his next opponent would be the 42-year-old Pacquiao and he said it wouldn’t be an exhibition.
Many boxing fans felt this was nothing more than a ploy by Garcia to get his name out there and media attention.
Eric Gomez of Golden Boy Promotions shot down the idea of Garcia fighting Pacquiao and said it wouldn’t happen and he would rather see Garcia in with undisputed lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez.
Pacquiao who has stayed silent on the rumors, finally spoke out to Nick Giongco of The Daily Tribune PH and told the Filipino journalist that his first choice would be undefeated American WBO welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford.
The Filipino southpaw wants to fight someone with a belt since the WBA stripped him of his title making him a champion in recess due to inactivity and elevated the regular champion Yordenis Ugas to super status.
Pacquiao and Crawford were close to fighting in Qatar but the Minister of Health nixed the idea due to COVID-19 restrictions on audience attendance.
The shocking part of the interview is the monetary demand Pacquiao gave Top Rank promoter Bob Arum in order for the Crawford fight to go through.
“We told Bob I get $40 million and Crawford gets $10 million,” Pacquiao revealed to the Daily Tribune.
During these trying times of the coronavirus pandemic a $40 million payday is extremely hard to come by without a huge live gate, and enough financial backing.
Unless they can find some investors with deep pockets, Pacquiao vs. Crawford would have to do extremely well on Pay-Per-View for Arum to even accept the high purse demand by Pacquiao.
Pacquiao recently announced on his official Twitter page that he already begun training and his manager Audie Attar of Paradigm Sports is working on a huge fight that they will announce soon.
