Manny Pacquiao to fight Jessie Vargas next! – Breaking News

By Boxing News - 08/03/2016 - Comments

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By Chris Williams: In what has to be seen as a major disappointment for Terence Crawford, he’s been skipped over for a fight against Filipino star Manny Pacquiao (58-6-2, 38 KOs) once again. Pacquiao will be fighting WBO welterweight champion Jessie Vargas (27-1, 12 KOs) next, according to LA Times writer Lance Pugnire. He was told today by Pacquiao’s personal adviser Michael Koncz about the news.

The decision for Pacquiao to fight Vargas, 27, has been made! As for Crawford, I guess he’ll have to go back to the grindstone and hope that he can get a big money fight against Pacquiao the next time around if there is one.

I agree with the decision by Pacquiao to fight Vargas, because it’s a much better fight than it would be for him to fight Terence Crawford. Vargas has the capability of attracting a lot of Hispanic boxing fans in the United States to pay to see him fight Pacquiao. That could result in a lot of pay-per-view buys.

Crawford’s recent fight against Viktor Postol on HBO pay-per-view was rumored to have brought in a low amount of buys. With Crawford not being a proven PPV attraction, there’s no real reason for Pacquiao to fight him. But more importantly, Pacquiao doesn’t need to be chasing a fighter all around the ring all night long like he would almost surely have to do if he were to fight Crawford. We saw how Crawford circled the ring all night long in his fight against Viktor Postol last month in a painfully boring fight.

I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in the Pacquiao household when he sat to watch the Crawford-Postol fight. I can just picture Pacquiao shaking his head an saying, ‘Nah, that isn’t going to do it. I’m not going to sign on for a fight where I’ve got to chase Crawford for 12 rounds. I want someone that is going to make it exciting and not force me to put on my track shoes just so that I can catch up to him.’

Say what you will about Vargas being a limited fighter when it comes to hand speed and punching power, he comes to fight each time he’s in the ring. Vargas makes it exciting and brings a sense of drama to his fights. So what if Vargas lost 11 of 12 rounds in his fight against Tim Bradley in 2015. It was still interesting to watch.

“I don’t like Crawford’s boxing style. I don’t believe it’s a style that suits Manny,” said Koncz to the LA Times. “It’s Manny’s decision. We’re not going to chase Floyd,” Koncz said. “If Floyd wants to give Manny a rematch, of course we’ll entertain it. We’re not fools.”

I totally agree with Mr. Koncz. Crawford style is more of a runner’s style. It can be beaten by a pressure fighter with a Golovkin-esque style of fighting. Golovkin eats fighters like Crawford for dinner, breakfast and lunch. You can’t beat a fighter like Golovkin by running from him, because he’s so good at cutting off the ring on you and taking you out with body and head shots.

Pacquiao isn’t as good at fighting runners, so it obviously wouldn’t be a good fight for him. That’s not to say that Paquiao couldn’t beat Crawford, because I think he could if he trained hard at cutting off the ring and looking to throw body shots. Body shots are essential to stop runners. But it wouldn’t be entertaining to watch, and I think that’s the same conclusion that Konz arrived at.

Asking Pacquiao to chase a fighter for 12 rounds would be beneath his dignity. Pacquiao needs to be fighting exciting fighters that come to fight to give the boxing fans entertainment for 12 rounds.

“Koncz said discussion will be about Dubai or Las Vegas,” said Pugmire on his Twitter.
Having the fight in Las Vegas would be nice, because that would make it easier for Pacquiao’s fans in the United States to see it. If Top Rank stages the fight in Dubai, then it would greatly limit the amount of U.S fans that would be willing and/or able to travel there. That’s Middle East and I think it would be a real hardship for fans from the U.S to make that trek just to see a fight that might not be a competitive one.

Crawford probably ruined whatever chance he had of fighting Pacquiao when he said that he would need to come down to 140 for the fight to happen. Pacquiao hasn’t fought at light welterweight for many years. Asking him to fight in that weight class at 37 was crazy. I don’t know what got into Crawford’s head for him to say that, because he hadn’t beaten anyone good enough for him to suddenly start calling the shots with Pacquiao. I could understand Crawford saying politely that he would like to fight at 140 if Pacquiao were up to it, but I don’t understand him saying that the fight would have to take place in his weight class. Crawford’s promoter Bob Arum should have sat him down before the Postol fight and giving him coaching lessons in how to A. fight B. what to say after the fight C. how to act after the fight.

Vargas recently defeated Sadam Ali by a 9th round TKO last March to win the vacant WBO welterweight title. Vargas showed a rare bit of punching power in that fight in knocking Ali down in the 8th and 9th rounds to get the stoppage win. In Vargas’ previous fight, he had stunned Bradley in the 12th round with a huge right hand. Before that, Vargas had lost the first 11 rounds. Bradley was able to make it to the end of the fight despite being very hurt. It looks like Vargas got confidence from the Bradley fight that he could punch if he sat own on his shots, because he was out-punching Sadam Ali throughout their fight until getting the stoppage win.