WORLD boxing great Manny Pacquiao, officially retired, may be busy following the progress of President Duterte’s furious all-out war against the rampant drug menace in the country. But there’s another war, scheduled in Las Vegas, Nevada, today, which Pacquiao can’t—shouldn’t—miss.
American Terence Crawford (28-0, 20 KOs) and Ukrainian Viktor Postol (28-0, 12 KOs) clash in a world junior welterweight championship unification at the MGM Grand Las Vegas, a big fight which should draw unwavering live attention from Pacquiao.
You see, it’s a known fact that promoter Bob Arum has unretired Pacquiao even before the freshly minted Filipino senator could succeed in getting a sanction (to fight) from the Senate President. In fact, Arum has already reserved a Nov. 5 fight for Pacquiao in Las Vegas against a still unknown opponent.
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The prefight noise for today’s world title unification fight however continued to point hard at Crawford as the strongest candidate for Pacquiao’s next foe.
“A win by Crawford makes him one of the frontrunners to fight Pacquiao in Las Vegas on Nov. 5,” wrote Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times. Pugmire failed to mention a close second choice for a Pacquiao foe.
Of course, it can’t be denied Pacquiao already knows of Crawford, the fastest-rising American boxing star today. In fact, Pacquiao had to duck Crawford, in favor of Timothy Bradley, in what had been loudly advertised as the Pacman’s career-closing final fight.
For the record, Crawford, Arum’s first choice as opponent in Pacquiao’s last bout, was singled out by trainer Freddie Roach as “very talented, strong and dangerous” before that lengthy selection process [for a Pacquiao foe] could build up.
Bradley himself had nominated Crawford, his close friend, for that Pacquiao fight.
In the end, Team Pacquiao ended up with a third encounter against Bradley after Crawford loomed quite hazardous to Pacquiao’s health.
As could be expected, Crawford is a big favorite in today’s WBO-WBC junior welterweight unification fight.
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Roach, who’s handling Postol, has however issued a warning to Crawford handlers and fanatics not to undermine the quiet, calculating and hard-working Postol.
“Crawford has a lot of talent but Postol has beaten tougher and better opponents,” Roach said. “Crawford will find that Postol would be a lot different than Hank Lundy and Darry Jean.”
Roach continued to trumpet about the sensational stoppage by Postol of the heavily favored Lucas Matisse last year.
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Roach also prides in the fact that “Postol and Pacquiao were even with each other” when they sparred in General Santos City in 2014.
Postol sparred and helped Pacquiao prepare against the American kick-boxing champ Chris Algieri.
That bout, hugely over-hyped, turned into a dismal mismatch in Macau.