Pacquiao-Vargas card to have four title fights

09/23/2016 by Boxing News

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By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has put together the November 5th Manny Pacquiao vs. Jessie Vargas fight card that will have four world title matches at stake at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Pacquiao-Vargas fight will be shown on Top Rank pay-per-view at 9:00 p.m. ET on November 5.

This is probably not a good idea of Arum to have matched Pacquiao against Vargas, because it’s not a fight that will sell no matter who the 84-year-old promoter puts on the undercard. Pacquiao’s last fight against Tim Bradley brought in 400,000 buys on HBO. Few fans wanted to see a third fight between Pacquiao and Bradley, but they got it anyway.

Vargas vs. Pacquiao Manny looking for another title

09/08/2016 by Boxing News

By Chris Williams: Top Rank will be distributing the November 5 fight between WBO welterweight champion Jessie Vargas and Manny Pacquiao on pay-per-view without the help of their longtime partner HBO. The network passed on the option of televising the Vargas-Pacquiao fight. Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is going to having his company put it on PPV. It’s unclear how many buys it’ll generate without the help of HBO.

There’s talk of the fight not being shown a week later on non-PPV. HBO always shows their PPV fights a week later on regular HBO. It looks like that won’t happen with Top Rank. That’s a potentially bad thing for the fighters, especially the non-stars like Terence Crawford.

Pacquiao in denial about loss to Mayweather

09/08/201609/08/2016 by Boxing News

By Chris Williams After almost a year and half since his one-sided 12 round unanimous decision loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr., former eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao still thinks he did enough to win their fight in May 2015 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The three judges felt differently than Pacquiao in scoring the fight 118-110, 116-112, andn116-112, all for Mayweather.

The boxing world and the large crowd at the MGM Grand felt comfortable with the decision, as there was no complaining afterwards. The only complaining there was from the angry fans resulted from Pacquiao (58-6-2, 38 KOs) revealing that he had taken the fight with an injured right shoulder.

Tickets to Pacquiao vs. Vargas Go On Sale Tomorrow

09/08/201609/07/2016 by Boxing News

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Pacquiao Nation Assemble! Boxing superhero and reigning Fighter of the Decade, Senator MANNY “Pacman” PACQUIAO, arrives in the U.S. Tonight! Wednesday, September 7. Pacquiao and his team are scheduled to land at LAX International’s Tom Bradley Terminal aboard Philippine Airlines Flight 102 at 7:30 p.m. PT

Live coverage of Pacquiao’s arrival, including an exclusive interview by Top Rank’s Crystina Poncher, will be available via www.pacvargas.com and www.facebook.com/trboxing.

Pacquiao-Vargas to be distributed by Top Rank’s PPV arm

09/03/2016 by Boxing News

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By Chris Williams: It looks like Top Rank promoter Bob Arum won’t be going with either of the main cable networks HBO or Showtime to televise former eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao’s next fight against World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Jessie Vargas (27-1, 10 KOs) on November 5. HBO passed on the fight for whatever reason. Supposedly, HBO didn’t want to televise the Pacquiao-Vargas fight on the date that Arum wanted it to take place because they already have the Andre Ward vs. Sergey Kovalev fight taking place in November.

HBO is said to not wanting to carry two PPV fights in the same month. But you have to wonder whether the network perceived the Pacquiao-Vargas fight as being a potential poor one in terms of fan interest and PPV buys, because it’s not a great fight at all. There are many boxing fans that are griping in forums on the internet that the match not being worthy of PPV. Arum wants the Pacquiao-Vargas fight to be on PPV, but it’s simply not a good fight in terms of it being an exciting match-up. Vargas is seen as a beatable champion, as he already proved last year in losing to Tim Bradley.

Nonito Donaire possible for Pacquiao-Vargas card

09/01/2016 by Boxing News

By Chris Williams: WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (37-3, 24 KOs) could be fighting his #1 WBO mandatory challenger Jessie Magdaleno (23-0, 17 KOs) on the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao vs. Jessie Vargas card on November 5 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

This would be a big deal if the 33-year-old Donaire were to fight on the Pacquiao vs. Vargas card, because it would increase interest in the card with some boxing fans. Top Rank needs to beef up the Pacquiao-Vargas card in the worst way because it’s not a fight that will likely attract much interest from the boxing fans to purchase it on pay-per-view.

In addition to Donaire-Magdaleno possibly being added to Pacquiao;’s card. There’s also could of other big fights on the card as well being talked about.

Pacquiao could fight twice in 2017

09/01/201609/01/2016 by Boxing News

By Eric Baldwin: If former eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao can get past WBO welterweight champion Jessie Vargas in flying colors on November 5 in their fight on pay-per-view, then Pacquiao is expected to be back for two fights in 2017.

Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum is reportedly saying that the Filipino star will fight two times next year. Arum isn’t saying who the soon to be 38-year-old Pacquiao will be fighting in 2017, but Arum has mentioned that he would like to match him against his fighters Terence Crawford and Vasyl Lomachenko. Both are with the 84-year-old Arum’s Top Rank stable, so putting the fights together should be a cinch for the aging promoter.

Pacquiao also has the potential option of fighting former WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo Alvarez, but it’s unknown if Arum will want to make that fight. Canelo isn’t with Arum’s Top Rank stable.

Pacquiao vs. Vargas: Jessie says Kellerman is ignorant

08/28/2016 by Boxing News

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By Chris Williams: WBO welterweight champion Jessie Vargas (27-1, 10 KOs) thinks ESPN First Take analyst Max Kellerman is ignorant for his recent comments in saying that if Manny Pacquiao (58-6-2, 38 KOs) loses to Vargas in their fight on November 5, then it suggests that the Filipino fighter is over-the-hill. Kellerman said that it appears that the reason why Pacquiao chose to fight Vargas next instead of unbeaten WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford next is because he’s only fighting for money rather than for the sport.

Kellerman sees Vargas as the easier option for Pacquiao than Crawford, who he feels would be a real test for him if the fight had been made. Pacquiao, 37, had the option to select the Top Rank promoted Crawford for his next fight, but he instead selected Vargas.

It’s easy to understand why Pacquiao selected Vargas to fight, because he’s clearly a more beatable guy. All Kellerman is doing is speaking the plain facts.

Pacquiao vs. Vargas: Did Kellerman rush to write off the fight?

08/23/2016 by Boxing News

By Gerardo Granados: Since the November 5th fight between Manny Pacquiao and Jessie Vargas was officially announced, I have read and hear criticism towards this fight, but I don’t think it’s a bad match up at all. In fact, I believe this one might as well end up in the upset of the year. So, I asked to a friend sports journalist Niccolo Chaves if he thought that Max Kellerman had rushed to write off the Jessie Vargas vs Manny Pacquiao upcoming fight. But my friend didn’t know what Max Kellerman had said at the ESPN First Take show last week.

So I told him that basically Kellerman said Manny Pacquiao was cherry picking Jessie Vargas. My friend replied “Well, Vargas is no Sugar Ray Leonard, but he still has a belt and can be decent after the third Tim Bradley fight. When Floyd Mayweather and Pacquiao are involved, the expectations are so sky high that often their matches are mismatches.”

Malignaggi surprised HBO not televising Pacquiao-Vargas

08/23/2016 by Boxing News

By Patrick McHugh: HBO decided recently not to televise the November 5 fight between Top Rank promoted welterweights Manny Pacquiao and Jessie Vargas for their fight at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. HBO reportedly wants to televise the Pacquiao-Vargas fight on October 29 in order to package it with the Tyson Fury vs. Wladimir Klitschko fight card.

Showtime commentator Paulie Malignaggi was surprised that HBO chose not to televise the Pacquiao-Vargas fight because he still sees the Filipino star as capable of bringing in pay-per-view buys at this point in his career, even though his last fight against Tim Bradley was said to have done poorly in not selling what he’d done in the past.