Urgent call: Make it Pacquiao vs Matthysse

Veteran promoter Bob Arum made a promise to provide something unique (and nice) for Manny Pacquiao’s next fight. After a long wait, it turned out the unusual opponent Arum meant was former world title-holder Mike Alvarado.

Top Rank Inc. has announced that the Pacquiao-Alvarado bout would be featured side-by-side with the WBO welterweight title defense in April of Australian Jeff Horn against the unbeaten Terence Crawford of Omaha.

Alvarado is a banged-up warrior who got seriously crushed in a losing title defense against Ruslan Provodnikov in October 2013. He was stopped in 10 rounds.

As noted by Philboxing.com founder and chief editor Dong Secuya, Alvarado next lost by decision to Juan Manuel Marquez in May 2014, before being stopped by Brandon Rios in three rounds in January 2015.

“It was in the last Rios loss that he seemed out of it,” Dong Secuya said.

It’s a bit puzzling, but if there’s anything unique Arum has found, it could be Alvarado’s four-straight wins (against unranked foes) since his return to the ring.

For the record, Pacquiao has not bothered to comment directly on Arum’s choice of Alvarado.
Yesterday, veteran sportswriter Nick Giongco reported Pacquiao has bared his choice of a next opponent.

“I want Matthysse,” Giongo said Pacquiao told him during a break in the Senate Tuesday afternoon.
Giongco said Pacquiao believes his own aggressive style and Matthysse’s penchant for toe-to-toe combat would make for a very compelling bout.

Matthysse took the WBA 147-lb belt with a stoppage of Thailand’s Tewa Kiram last month. His record is 39 wins, 4 losses, one draw with 36 KOs.

“Matthysse is the fight that I like, a fight fans would also like to see,” Giongco quoted Pacquiao as declaring.

Trainer Freddie Roach has himself said he would love Pacquiao to face Matthyse next.

Meanwhile, Bob Arum has declared Pacquiao vs Matthysse an impossibility.

“I see Manny has talked about fighting Matthysse,” Arum told Boxingscene. “But that’s not gonna happen.”