Pacquiao could face Yuri Foreman next – News

By Boxing News - 11/30/2009 - Comments

pac5634345By Eric Thomas: With the negotiations between Floyd Mayweather Jr. not running smoothly as they would like, Manny Pacquiao is reportedly looking at another option in the form of World Boxing Association light middleweight champion Yuri Foreman (28-0, 8 KO’s) to fight instead of Mayweather, according to news from Sportinglife. Foreman recently defeated then champion Daniel Santos in a 12 round decision earlier this month on November 14th.

Although Foreman is virtually unknown to anyone but the hardest of the hardcore boxing fans, a fight against him would give Pacquiao a chance at winning an 8th world title in the 8th different weight class.

Pacquiao surely can’t go wrong by facing Foreman, because he is perhaps the weakest of the light middleweight champions at this time and would give Pacquiao his best opportunity at winning the 8th title. If Pacquiao were to fight the other light middleweight champions Sergio Martinez, Cory Spinks, Alfredo Angulo and Sergeii Dzinziruk, there would be a good chance that Pacquiao would be beaten by them.

So by taking the easy route, Pacquiao has a chance at winning an eighth title. Some people might say it’s Pacquiao going after a paper champion, but if it gives Pacquiao his 8th world title, who cares? It’s the collection of titles that’s the main thing, not who he got them from. A fight against Mayweather could come about by late next year, possibly September. Mayweather is rumored to be interested in fighting Matthew Hatton, the younger brother of Ricky Hatton.

Pacquiao’s camp wants to make the fight against Mayweather happen early next year, ideally in March. However, Mayweather doesn’t seem interested in fighting Pacquiao that soon and wants more time. Roach had this to say to the Press Association Sport: “Mayweather doesn’t want to fight in March, so we [Pacquiao] might fight for the 154 pound title in March and move up for the eighth world title…Yuri Foreman might be the opponent. It is a possibility, and then Mayweather in September.”

Foreman would be a tough opponent for Pacquiao, because Yuri doesn’t stand and trade like most of Pacquiao’s past opponents. It would be fair to say that Foreman fights like a slower, bigger version of Mayweather. He likes to hit and run and frustrate his opponents. At the same time, Foreman is a dangerous opponent to fight because he tends to lower his head when charging forward.

Foreman’s last two fights against Cornelius Bundrage and Santos have had cuts caused by Foreman accidentally ramming his head into his opponent when charging forward. Santos looked very uncomfortable with Foreman bumping heads with him over and over again during the fight, and seemed to become unnerved after a period of time.

If Pacquiao does choose to fight Foreman, it’s a good possibility that one or both of them will be cut from a clash of heads because Foreman seems to lower his head every time he comes charging forward and it’s very difficult to avoid getting rammed by him. If Pacquiao can step to the side each time Foreman comes forward, like a matador, he’ll get through the fight without being cut up. If not, I think there’s a high chance that Pacquiao will suffer a bad cut at some point in the fight



Comments are closed.