By Chris Williams: If the 37-year-old Manny Pacquiao (58-6-2, 38 KOs) can get past World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Jessie Vargas (27-1, 10 KOs) in their fight this Saturday night, Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach says he would be open to a fight between Pacquiao and WBO super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (6-1, 4 KOs) taking place.
Roach says Pacquiao can get down to 135 to fight, but he’d prefer the fight take place at 140. Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank, who also promotes Lomachenko, says he would love to match Pacquiao against Lomachenko, as he sees that as a dream fight.
Pacquiao was asked about the Lomachenko fight, and his eyes lit up as he spoke. He seemed pretty obvious that this is a fight that motivates him. During the same interview, Pacquiao was asked about a fight against Terence Crawford, and he appeared less animated when speaking of that fight. Based on my opinion, I think Pacquiao prefers the Lomachenko fight to the Crawford one. Arum should go in that direction rather than continually talking up a fight between Pacquiao and Crawford that may never actually happen.
Roach says he wasn’t that impressed with Lomachenko, who he feels isn’t that good of a fighter. Lomachenko was already beaten by Orlando Salido in 2014. Lomachenko has since won his last four fights against Gary Russell Jr., Suriya Tatakhun, Gamalier Rodriguez, Romulo Koaisicha and Roman “Rocky” Martinez.
Roach said this to the boxing media about his thoughts on a Pacquiao vs. Lomachenko fight:
“He can make 135. I’d rather have him fight at 140,” said Roach about Pacquiao. “I haven’t thought of that fight [Pacquiao vs. Lomachenko] yet, because the weights are so far apart. I’d love that fight. I’d accept that in a minute. Lomachenko, sure, I don’t think he’s that good. He’s a good fighter, yes, but I’ve seen him look terrible in fights when he first came over here. I’ve seen him training in my gym for his first two fights, and he played more with tennis balls than anything. He’s going to need more than tennis balls to beat Manny Pacquiao,” said Roach.
Lomachenko is fighting at a high level right now at age 28. I could see him beating Pacquiao, and sending him into retirement.
If it’s going to be up to Arum to make the final decision whether Pacquiao and Lomachenko face each other in early 2017, then I don’t think the fight will happen. I get the impression that Arum BADLY wants Pacquiao to fight Terence Crawford. That’s the guy that I see Arum making the major push to get Pacquiao to fight. It’s not a fight that will make a lot of money, but it could help Crawford become a little more popular, but probably not in a major way. Look at Pacquiao’s past opponents Brandon Rios, Tim Bradley and Chris Algieri.
None of them became super popular after fighting him, and I see it the same way with Crawford. Pacquiao vs. Lomachenko won’t be a big fight either, because Lomachenko isn’t well known in the U.S. It would just be a fune fight for the hardcore boxing fans. The fight might make Lomachenko a little more visible in the U.S, but not by a lot, especially if the fight isn’t televised on HBO pay-per-view.
If Arum’s Top Rank company is going to be the one that winds up televising the Pacquiao vs. Lomachenko fight, then that would likely mean that there won’t be a replay of the fight on normal non-PPV television like there is with HBO. That’s not a good thing, because it means that the boxing fans that don’t pay to see the fight on PPV won’t see it at all. The fight would be seen by just the small number of boxing fans that order it on PPV. That wouldn’t be a big deal if Lomachenko was already well known, but he’s not. Lomachenko will end up not being seen by a lot of casual boxing fans that don’t order the fight and can’t see the fight on regular HBO if Arum decides to televise it himself on Top Rank PPV.
Lomachenko has to get past former World Boxing Association featherweight champion Nicholas Walters (26-0-1, 21 KOs) next month on November 26 in their fight on HBO in Las Vegas, Nevada. There’s no telling what will happen in that fight. Walters could beat Lomachenko, especially if the Ukrainian fighter comes out and tries to slug with him from the get go like he did against the depleted Roman Martinez.
There’ a big difference between Lomachenko slugging with the worn out looking Martinez, and the still fresh and rested Walters. Martinez is a good fighter, but he was coming off of back to back grueling matches against Orlando Salido at the time he faced him last June.
Lomachenko caught Martinez at the right time of his career. We saw how Salido beat Lomachenko by attacking him to the body, and forcing him to hold all night long. Surprisingly, the referee allowed Lomachenko to get away with the holding without penalizing him, which you can argue that he should have done by as early as the 4th round. By that point in the fight, it was clear that Lomachenko was using holding to stall out Salido’s offense. The holding got in the way of the fight, and it might have prevented Salido from knocking Lomachenko out. Since that fight, Lomachenko has fought guys that were easier for his style.
Russell Jr. is a good fighter, but he’s not a body puncher, and he failed to follow the blue print that Salido created in how to beat Lomachenko. It’s too bad for Russell Jr., because you’re supposed to learn to learn from previous fights to understand how to beat a certain fighter. In this case, Russell Jr. didn’t attack Lomachenko to the body the way that Salido did for 12 rounds, and the result was him losing to the Ukrainian because of it. If Lomachenko does get past Walters, then it would be a great fight if he and Pacquiao could face each other.
