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Henry Armstrong Enters the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame; a Curious Pick
Last month, the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame unveiled the names of the inductees in the Class of 2018. The newcomers will be formally enshrined at a gala banquet on Saturday
Last month, the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame unveiled the names of the inductees in the Class of 2018. The newcomers will be formally enshrined at a gala banquet on Saturday, Aug. 18, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The banquet is the highlight of Hall of Fame Weekend, a three-day extravaganza.
Born in 2012, the NBHOF is the brainchild of Rich Marotta. A longtime Southern California broadcaster and TV and radio boxing personality who has resided in Reno, Nevada, since 2005, the well-liked Marotta remains involved with the organization, but ceded the heavy lifting to Michelle Corrales-Lewis in 2016. The widow of the late boxer Diego Corrales, Ms. Corrales-Lewis holds the title of CEO/President.
The NBHOF has been a work in progress. When the rules for eligibility were first set down, a boxer, whether living or dead, had to have fought 12 times in Nevada or had to have had at least eight title fights here. That rule, which locked out Muhammad Ali, was quickly loosened. Nowadays, a boxer needs to have had only one fight in Nevada to warrant consideration.
That brings us to 2018 inductee Henry Armstrong who qualified for admission under the revised criteria but was yet an awkward choice. Armstrong is one of nine boxers entering the Hall this year. Five non-boxers are joining him. What follows are thumbnail sketches of the 14 honorees.
Henry Armstrong
A true ring immortal, Armstrong appears second on many all-time pound-for-pound lists behind only the legendary Sugar Ray Robinson. Hammerin’ Henry won the featherweight, welterweight, and lightweight titles — in that order – in an era where there were only eight weight classes. For a brief time, he held all three belts simultaneously.
Armstrong, for all the accolades showered on him by boxing historians, is an odd pick for the NBHOF as only three of his 182 documented fights were staged in Nevada – this despite the fact that he was a West Coast fighter, domiciled in LA for most of his career.
Coming up the ladder, Armstrong had two fights in Reno. Toward the end of his career, he fought in Pittman. A federal reservation built around a big World War II magnesium plant, Pittman, which would be expunged from the map, straddled Las Vegas and the newly chartered Las Vegas border town of Henderson.
This reporter has written about the efforts undertaken by powerful people in Las Vegas to deter Armstrong from going through with his Labor Day 1942 fight in Pittman against third-rater Johnny Taylor and the bad press it received in the town’s only daily newspaper. Here’s the link.
Armstrong’s induction is thus something of a posthumous make-up call, an apology for the rude reception he received in 1942.
OTHER BOXERS, LISTED ALPHABETICALLY
Laila Ali
Perhaps the best female boxer ever (you’ll get an argument from admirers of Lucia Rijker and Cecilia Braekhus), Ali was yet another curious choice as she had only two fights in Nevada, those coming in 2002 at the Aladdin and Stratosphere in Las Vegas. Unbeaten in 24 fights with 21 knockouts, her signature win was a fourth round stoppage of Christie Martin in Biloxi, Mississippi. Laila’s legendary father was inducted into the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame with the class of 2015.
Alexis Arguello
Named the best junior lightweight of the century in a 1999 Associated Press poll, Arguello was 6-2 in Nevada rings and 77-8 overall. His 1982 fight with WBA junior welterweight champion Aaron Pryor at Miami’s Orange Bowl was named the Fight of the Decade. The sequel the next year was staged in the outdoor arena at Caesars Palace.
One of Arguello’s best wins came late in his career when he stopped 31-1 Billy Costello, a former world titlist, in the fourth round at the Lawlor Events Center in Reno. The Nicaraguan Thin Man retired after that fight and was inactive for the next eight-and-a-half years before being drawn back to the ring. He was a shell of himself when he had his last pro fight, losing a 10-round decision to unheralded Scott Walker at Arizona Charlie’s, a neighborhood casino in Las Vegas.
Chris Byrd
A silver medalist at the Barcelona Olympics, Byrd weighed 169 pounds when he launched his pro career in 1993. One of his best wins came against David Tua at the Cox Pavilion on the campus of UNLV. He out-slicked Tua to earn a crack at Evander Holyfield and then out-slicked Evander to capture the IBF world heavyweight title. Byrd had only three fights in Nevada, but he lived in the city for much of his career and beyond, eventually training fighters in the large converted garage that sat deep in the backyard of his spacious home.
Byrd, always a gentleman, is one of the good guys in the sport. Few people in boxing are more respected by their peers.
Kevin Kelley
One of the great action fighters of the 1990s, the “Flushing Flash” built his reputation at boutique New York venues like the Felt Forum and the Paramount Theater, but became a world champion in Reno, snatching the WBC featherweight belt from Gregorio Vargas. Altogether, he had 11 fights in Nevada at 11 different locales.
Don Minor
Minor’s pro career, truncated by brittle hands, was here and gone in a flash. Fourteen of his 21 fights took place within a 48-week window in 1964. The first 13 were at the Castaways, where the Mirage now sits, and the last at the Hacienda, which gave way to Mandalay Bay. It was at the Hacienda where he scored his signature win, a 12-round decision over previously unbeaten Ernie “Indian Red” Lopez, a future two-time world title challenger. Described as a cool, calculating southpaw, the local fan favorite finished with a record of 19-2.
Shane Mosley
A world champion in three weight classes, Mosley was 33-0 when he made his Nevada debut in 2000 with a sixth round stoppage of Willy Wise at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. In the ensuing years, he became a fixture in the big rooms on the Las Vegas Strip, opposing such notables as Juan Manual Marquez, Oscar De La Hoya, Winky Wright (twice), Fernando Vargas (twice), Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, and Canelo Alvarez.
Aaron Pryor
Widely considered the best junior welterweight ever, “The Hawk” made the first defense of his WBA 140-pound title at the Hacienda where he blasted out Lennox Blackmoore in the second round. His next Nevada appearance, and third overall, was his rematch with Alexis Arguello. The sequel wasn’t as epic as the first meeting but was another memorable scrap.
Earnie Shavers
Shavers, who competed during the Golden Era of Heavyweights, was recognized as the hardest puncher of them all. Of his 68 knockouts, 41 came in the first two rounds.
In 1971, his second full year as a pro, Shavers had nine of his 17 fights in Nevada. Overall, he had 15 fights in the Silver State, including two bouts with Larry Holmes at Caesars Palace. Between those fights he scored his signature win, a first round knockout of Ken Norton at the Las Vegas Hilton.
NON-BOXERS
Todd duBoef
Bob Arum remains the face (and voice) of Top Rank, but DuBoef, Arum’s 50-year-old stepson, is more involved in the day-to-day affairs. With the founder now an octogenarian and many key positions occupied by longtime employees, this is a company that could have easily become calcified, but DuBoef, who joined the company in 1993, brought fresh ideas that smoothed the transition into the digital age. When he assumed the presidency of Top Rank in 2005, DuBoef was committed to making the sport less marginalized. Top Rank’s deal with ESPN bears his thumbprint.
Jack “Doc” Kearns
Born John Leo McKernan, Doc Kearns is best remembered for resurrecting the career of tramp fighter Jack Dempsey who went on to win the world heavyweight title and become America’s most exalted athlete during the Golden Era of Sports. With an assist from the late Las Vegas Sun publisher Hank Greenspun, Kearns also had the distinction of manufacturing the first Las Vegas fight that caught the attention of hardcore fight fans around the world, the 1951 fight at the Cashman baseball park between Archie Moore and Nino Valdes.
In a career that spanned six decades, Kearns managed such notables as Dempsey, Moore, Mickey Walker and Joey Maxim, not to mention a slew of white hope heavyweights that never panned out, one of whom, Jefferson Davis, he discovered on a scouting trip to Las Vegas.
Bill Miller
Miller, who hailed Elmira, New York, acquired the Thoroughbred Lounge, a freestanding mid-Strip saloon that was a popular Las Vegas hangout for fans of the sweet science; it had a mini-boxing gym in the basement. During the 1960s, he took to arranging club fights, potting his shows at Circus Circus, the Castaways, the Hacienda, and eventually the Silver Slipper where Miller’s “Strip Fight of the Week” settled in for a long run.
A hugely important transitional figure in the history of boxing in Las Vegas, Miller was both a promoter and a manager, at various times handling the affairs of such notables as the Hernandez brothers, Ferd and Art, Denny Moyer, and Freddie Little, the latter of whom used Miller’s shows as a stepping stone to winning a world title.
Bill Miller died during open heart surgery in 1976 at age forty-nine. Although the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame has been around for only six years, the induction of Miller is long overdue.
Harry Reid
Born in the fly-speck town of Searchlight, Nevada, Reid spent 30 years in the U.S. Senate, rising to the post of Senate Majority Leader. But don’t be misled; a lifelong boxing fan, his credentials for membership in this body are legit. During his days as Nevada’s Attorney General and beyond, he was often called upon to mediate disputes between boxing promoters and state regulators. In the mid-1960s, before he won his first political race, Reid moonlighted as a boxing judge, working dozens of club fights on the Las Vegas Strip.
Jerry Roth
Roth, a longtime Southern Nevada resident, retired in 2015 after a 35-year run as a ringside boxing judge. BoxRec credits him with working 715 fights (there were undoubtedly more), of which more than 200 bore the label of a title fight.
Eyebrows were raised when Roth landed the Holmes-Cooney blockbuster in 1980 when he was one of the newest kids on the block, but the scorecard that he submitted, which had Holmes comfortably ahead through the completed rounds, was considered the only sensible one of the three.
No mortal human works as a boxing judge for more than three decades without an occasional misstep and Roth was no exception, but what jumps out about his career is that when he was party to a brouhaha it was invariably his cohorts that brought about the controversy. For example, he alone of the three judges scored the first Pacquiao-Bradley fight for Pacquaio.
Jerry Roth’s induction comes on the heels of his induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame last year.
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The annual NBHOF Induction Weekend has blossomed into quite a shindig. Attendees invariably bump into well-known boxers, active and retired, and the informal encounters are invariably pleasant. Boxers as a group may be the most down-to-earth athletes in the entire spectrum of sports. In terms of scale, the three-day event in Las Vegas is surpassed only by Induction Weekend in June at the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, New York.
The Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame is a 501 (c) non-profit. The organization, to quote their web site, “(is) committed to helping boxing-related causes and community organizations making a difference in the lives of our youth.” Donations are tax-deductible. For more information, check out their web site at www.nvbhof.com.
Check out more boxing news on video at The Boxing Channel
In an unprecedented development, the Boxing Writers Association of America has started a “watch list” to lift the curtain on ring officials who have “screwed up.” Veteran Texas referee Laurence Cole and Nebraska judges Mike Contreras and Jeff Sinnett have the unwelcome distinction of being the first “honorees.”
“Boxing is a sport where judges and referees are rarely held accountable for poor performances that unfairly change the course of a fighter’s career and, in some instances, endanger lives,” says the BWAA in a preamble to the new feature. Hence the watch list, which is designed to “call attention to ‘egregious’ errors in scoring by judges and unacceptable conduct by referees.”
Contreras and Sinnett, residents of Omaha, were singled out for their scorecards in the match between lightweights Thomas Mattice and Zhora Hamazaryan, an eight round contest staged at the WinnaVegas Casino in Sloan, Iowa on July 20. They both scored the fight 76-75 for Mattice, enabling the Ohio fighter to keep his undefeated record intact via a split decision.
Although Mattice vs. Hamazaryan was a supporting bout, it aired live on ShoBox. Analyst Steve Farhood, who was been with ShoBox since the inception of the series in 2001, called it one of the worst decisions he had ever seen. Lead announcer Barry Tompkins went further, calling it the worst decision he has seen in his 40 years of covering the sport.
Laurence Cole (pictured alongside his father) was singled out for his behavior as the third man in the ring for the fight between Regis Prograis and Juan Jose Velasco at the Lakefront Arena in New Orleans on July 14. The bout was televised live on ESPN.
In his rationale for calling out Cole, BWAA prexy Joseph Santoliquito leaned heavily on Thomas Hauser’s critique of Cole’s performance in The Sweet Science. “Velasco fought courageously and as well as he could,” noted Hauser. “But at the end of round seven he was a thoroughly beaten fighter.”
His chief second bullied him into coming out for another round. Forty-five seconds into round eight, after being knocked down for a third time, Velasco spit out his mouthpiece and indicated to Cole that he was finished. But Cole insisted that the match continue and then, after another knockdown that he ruled a slip, let it continue for another 35 seconds before Velasco’s corner mercifully threw in the towel.
Controversy has dogged Laurence Cole for well over a decade.
Cole was the third man in the ring for the Nov. 25, 2006 bout in Hildalgo, Texas, between Juan Manuel Marquez and Jimrex Jaca. In the fifth round, Marquez sustained a cut on his forehead from an accidental head butt. In round eight, another accidental head butt widened and deepened the gash. As Marquez was being examined by the ring doctor, Cole informed Marquez that he was ahead on the scorecards, volunteering this information while holding his hand over his HBO wireless mike. The inference was that Marquez was free to quit right then without tarnishing his record. (Marquez elected to continue and stopped Jaca in the next round.)
This was improper. For this indiscretion, Cole was prohibited from working a significant fight in Texas for the next six months.
More recently, Cole worked the 2014 fight between Vasyl Lomachenko and Orlando Salido at the San Antonio Alamodome. During the fight, Salido made a mockery of the Queensberry rules for which he received no point deductions and only one warning. Cole’s performance, said Matt McGrain, was “astonishingly bad,” an opinion echoed by many other boxing writers. And one could site numerous other incidents where Cole’s performance came under scrutiny.
Laurence Cole is the son of Richard “Dickie” Cole. The elder Cole, now 87 years old, served 21 years as head of the Texas Department of Combat Sports Regulation before stepping down on April 30, 2014. At various times during his tenure, Dickie Cole held high executive posts with the World Boxing Council and North American Boxing Federation. He was the first and only inductee into the inaugural class of the Texas Boxing Hall of Fame, an organization founded by El Paso promoter Lester Bedford in 2015.
From an administrative standpoint, boxing in Texas during the reign of Dickie Cole was frequently described in terms befitting a banana republic. Whenever there was a big fight in the Lone Star State, his son was the favorite to draw the coveted refereeing assignment.
Boxing is a sideline for Laurence Cole who runs an independent insurance agency in Dallas. By law in Texas (and in most other states), a boxing promoter must purchase insurance to cover medical costs in the event that one or more of the fighters on his show is seriously injured. Cole’s agency is purportedly in the top two nationally in writing these policies. Make of that what you will.
Complaints of ineptitude, says the WBAA, will be evaluated by a “rotating committee of select BWAA members and respected boxing experts.” In subsequent years, says the press release, the watch list will be published quarterly in the months of April, August, and December (must be the new math).
Check out more boxing news on video at The Boxing Channel
Rival boxing shows compete this Saturday as light heavyweight world titlists are featured in New Jersey while former world champion welterweights and middleweights tangle in New York.
A mere 150 miles separate the two fight cards staged in Uniondale, N.Y. and Atlantic City.
But there’s no mercy inside the boxing ring and certainly no mercy between boxing promotions. While Main Events stages WBO light heavyweight titlist Sergey Kovalev and WBA light heavyweight titlist Dmitry Bivol in separate bouts, DiBella Entertainment stacks former champs Andre Berto against Devon Alexander in a welterweight clash.
Take your pick.
Russia’s Kovalev (32-2-1, 28 KOs) has lost some luster and hopes to reboot his popularity with a win against Canada’s Eleider Alvarez (23-0, 11 KOs). But he will be directly competing against WBA champ Bivol (13-0, 11 KOs), also of Russia, who defends against Isaac Chilemba (25-5-2) of South Africa.
HBO will televise both light heavyweight title fights.
Bivol, 27, has slowly, almost glacier-like slow, picked up fans along the way by training in Southern California. The quiet unassuming fighter with a conservative style and cobra-like quickness appeals to the fans.
“I do not think that now I am the best light heavyweight, but I am now one of the best. One of four guys,” said Bivol during a press conference call. “But I hope in not the far future, we will know who is the best.”
That, of course, would mean a date with Kovalev should both fighters win on Saturday. Nothing is certain.
Kovalev, now 35, has lost some of that fear factor aura since losing back-to-back fights to now retired Andre Ward. Though he’s cracked two opponents in succession by knockout, many are pointing to the potential showdown with Bivol as the moment of truth.
“Most likely this fight is gonna happen since both Sergey and I are HBO boxers and as long as that’s what the people want, most likely the fight will happen,” said Bivol. “Me and Sergey will make sure to give this fight to the people.”
It’s time for the build-up and it starts on Saturday Aug. 4, on HBO.
“That’s certainly a goal of Sergey’s and he’s made it very clear to me that that’s what he wants to do,” said promoter Kathy Duva, CEO of Main Events. “He wants to do unification fights if he is successful with Eleider Alvarez. That’s what he wants to do next; he’s been very clear about that.”
DiBella
Five former world champions stack the fight card at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York.
Former welterweight world champs Andre Berto (31-5, 24 KOs) and Devon Alexander (27-4-1, 14 KOs) lead the charge in a 12-round clash. FOX will televise the main event and others at 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET.
Berto, 34, has been fighting once a year so it’s difficult to determine if age has crept into his reflexes. When he knocked out Victor Ortiz in a rematch two years ago Berto looked sharp and dangerous. But against Shawn Porter a year ago, the crispness seemed gone and he quickly lost by knockout.
Alexander, 31, has the advantage of being a southpaw. But he always seems to do the minimum when he fights. Last February he slowed down and allowed Victor Ortiz to steal the fight. All the commotion by the announcers was for naught. Defense does not win fights, it allows you to win fights. The lack of offense in the latter rounds cost Alexander a win in a match that entered the books as a majority draw.
It’s a curious matchup of former world champions.
Peter “Kid Chocolate” Quillin (33-1-1, 23 KOs) the former WBO middleweight titlist meets J’Leon Love (24-1-1, 13 KOs) in a super middleweight bout set for 10 rounds. It’s another intriguing fight especially between two fighters with great personalities.
Quillin, 35, was ambushed by Daniel Jacobs in the first round a year ago in losing the title. Was it bad luck, age or both? As a fighter the Brooklyn-based prizefighter has a ton of followers who like him as a person. Few are as classy as Quillin.
Love, 30, has long been a mainstay in Las Vegas and since his amateur days his abilities have been touted. Throughout the years Love has shown that charm and friendliness can go a long ways, even in the bitter wars of prizefighting. But the time has come to see if he belongs in the prizefighting world. Quillin will present an immense challenge for Love.
A number of other interesting fights are slated to take place among former world champions including Sergey Lipinets who lost the super lightweight title to Mikey Garcia this past winter. There’s also Luis Collazo in a welterweight match.
One world title fight does take place on the card.
Female WBA super middleweight titlist Alicia Napoleon (9-1) makes the first defense of her title against Scotland’s Hannah Rankin (5-1). It’s a 10 round bout and the first time Napoleon defends the title since winning it last March against Germany’s Femke Hermans. Ironically, Hermans now has the WBO super middleweight title after defeating former champ Nikki Adler by decision this past May.
L.A. Congestion
Next week the city of Angels will be packed with three fight cards in four days.
First, on Wednesday Aug. 8, 360 Promotions stages Abraham Lopez (9-1-1, 3 KOs) versus Gloferson Ortizo (12-0-1, 6 KOs) in the main event at the Avalon Theater in Hollywood, Calif. This is Filipino fighter Ortizo’s ninth fight this year. You read that correctly.
All of Ortizo’s fights have taken place across the border in Tijuana. The 32-year-old now returns to California against another Californian in Lopez. He’ll be looking for his fourth consecutive knockout, but Lopez, 22, has not lost a fight since his pro debut. Inactivity might come into play for Lopez who hasn’t stepped in the boxing ring in over a year.
New York’s Brian Ceballo (3-0) returns in a six round welterweight bout against local fighter Tavorus Teague (5-20-4). Ceballo, who is promoted by 360 Promotions, looked good in his last appearance. The amateurish punches seen in his first two bouts were gone by his third pro fight. His opponent Teague has ability and can give problems if Ceballo takes his foot off the pedal.
One of Gennady “GGG” Golovkin’s training partners Ali Akhmedov (11-0, 8 KOs) makes his California debut when he meets Jorge Escalante (9-1-1, 6 KOs) in a light heavyweight match.
Female super lightweight Elvina White (2-0) is also slated to compete. The entire fight card will be streamed at www.360promotions.us and on the 360 Promotions page on Facebook. First bell rings at 6:15 p.m.
Belasco Theater in downtown L.A. is the site of Golden Boy Promotions fight card on Friday Aug. 10. A pair of young prospects will be severely tested.
San Diego’s Genaro Gamez (8-0, 5 KOs) meets Filipino fighter Recky Dulay (10-3, 7 KOs) for the vacant NABF super featherweight title. For Dulay it’s always kill or be killed. Five of his last fights have ended in knockout wins or losses.
Gamez, 23, seems to thrive under pressure and broke down two veterans in back-to-back fights at Fantasy Springs Casino. Now he returns to the Belasco, a venue where he has struggled in the past. But this time he’s the main event.
Another being severely tested will be Emilio Sanchez (15-1, 10 KOs) facing veteran Christopher Martin (30-10-3, 10 KOs) who is capable of beating anyone.
Sanchez, 24, lost by knockout in his last fight this past March. He’s talented and fearless and one mistake cost him his first loss as a pro. He’s not getting a break against Martin, a cagey fighter who has upset many young rising prospects in the past. Martin also has experience against world champions. It’s an extremely tough matchup for Sanchez.
The fight card will be televised by Estrella TV beginning at 6 p.m.
World Title Fight
On Saturday, boxing returns to the Avalon Theater in Hollywood.
The main event is a good one as Puerto Rico’s Jesus Rojas (26-1-2, 19 KOs) defends the WBA featherweight world title against Southern California’s Jojo Diaz (26-1) in a 12 round clash. It’s power versus speed.
Rojas, 31, is one tough customer. When he took the interim title against Claudia Marrero last year he chased down the speedy southpaw Dominican and blasted him out in the seventh round. Several months earlier he obliterated another Golden Boy prospect, Abraham Lopez (not the same Abraham Lopez that is fighting on the 360 Promotions card), in eight rounds. Now he has the title and defends against the speedy southpaw Diaz.
Diaz, 25, just recently lost a bid for the WBC featherweight title against Gary Russell Jr. Though he lost by decision three months ago, that fight might be easy in comparison to this challenge against Rojas.
The former Olympian won’t be able to take a breath against the Puerto Rican slugger who is about as rough as they come.
Two more undefeated Golden Boy prospects get a chance to eliminate each other when Philadelphia’s Damon Allen (15-0-1) meets East L.A.’s Jonathan Navarro (14-0, 7 KOs) in a super lightweight fight set for 10 rounds.
Phillie versus East LA is like fire versus fire in the boxing ring. Boxers originating from those two hard-bitten areas usually have go-for-broke styles that result in pure action. Allen versus Navarro should not disappoint.
Allen, 25, is not a hard puncher but he’s aggressive and like most Philadelphia fighters, he’s not afraid to mix it up.
Navarro, 21, lives in East L.A. but trains in Riverside under Robert Garcia. He’s slowly finding his timing and will be facing the fastest fighter since his pro debut in 2015.
Others featured on the card will be Hector Tanajara, Aaron McKenna and Ferdinand Kerobyan.
The card will be streamed on the Golden Boy Fight Night page on Facebook beginning at 6 p.m.
Check out more boxing news on video at The Boxing Channel
Manny Pacquiao isn’t quite ready to retire, and more big-money fights against high-level competition seem to be on the 39-year-old’s way.
“I feel like I’m a 27-year-old,” Pacquiao told GMAnetwork.com’s Jamil Santos last week. “Expect more fights to come.”
Pacquiao (60-7-2, 39 KOs) looked exceptionally sharp in his seventh-round knockout win over former junior welterweight titleholder Lucas Matthysse on July 15 at Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It was Pacquiao’s best performance in at least four years, netting Pacquiao a secondary world title at welterweight along with a slew of renewed public interest in the boxing superstar’s career.
But what comes next for the only fighter in the history of boxing to capture world titles in eight different weight classes? TSS takes a detailed look at the potential opponents for one of the sport’s most celebrated stars.
Cream of the Crop
Pacquiao looked good enough against Matthysse to suggest he’d make a viable candidate to face either Terence Crawford or Vasyl Lomachenko next. Crawford is ranked No. 2 on the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board’s pound-for-pound list while Lomachenko slots at No. 1.
While Pacquiao is no longer under contract with longtime promoter Bob Arum at Top Rank, most industry insiders expect he will continue working with Arum’s team in some capacity so long as his career keeps moving forward. Pacquiao started his own promotional venture, MP Promotions, to co-promote the Matthysse bout with Oscar De La Hoya, but Top Rank was still involved in the fight which is why the bout ended up streaming on ESPN+.
Top Rank’s two hottest commodities at the present are Ring Magazine and WBA lightweight champ Lomachenko and welterweight titlist Crawford. Both are highly-regarded, multi-division world titleholders in the primes of their careers who are universally considered the top fighters in boxing.
Lomachenko and Crawford would each present a unique set of problems for Pacquiao stylistically. Of the two, Pacquiao probably matches up best with Lomachenko at this point in his career. Crawford (33-0, 24 KOs) is much larger and heavier than both Pacquiao and Lomachenko, and unless Pacquiao just really wants to test himself against someone incredibly dangerous, it’d probably be best for Team Pacquiao to avoid fighting Crawford at all costs. Crawford would be a heavy favorite against Pacquiao and most boxing insiders don’t believe this version of Pacquiao could compete with Crawford.
Lomachenko (11-1, 9 KOs) is naturally smaller than Pacquiao and has never fought above 135 pounds. If Pacquiao could lure Lomachenko to 140 pounds or above, he’d find himself in a winnable fight against a top-notch opponent. Lomachenko would probably be the slight favorite based on age alone but Pacquiao’s power and athleticism would give him a realistic chance to pull the upset.
Other Notable Possibilities
Former junior welterweight titleholder Amir Khan has long been angling for a bout against Pacquiao. Khan faces Samuel Vargas on Sept. 8 in another comeback bout against lower level competition. Khan (32-4, 20 KOs) bravely moved up to middleweight to fight Canelo Alvarez in 2016 but was knocked out in the sixth round. He left the sport for a spell but returned to boxing in February as a welterweight with a sensational first round knockout win over Phil Lo Greco. A win over Vargas puts Khan in good position to secure a bout with Pacquiao, and the fight is a reasonable move by both camps. Pacquiao would probably be the heavy favorite, but Khan’s speed and long reach give him a decent chance to pull the upset.
Former welterweight titleholder Jeff Horn won a controversial decision over Pacquiao last year in Australia. The bout grabbed huge ratings for ESPN and there have been many debates since it happened as to which fighter truly deserved the nod from the judges. Horn (18-1-1, 12 KOs) doesn’t possess elite level talent, but he’s huge compared to Pacquiao and fights with such ferocity that the two can’t help but make an aesthetically pleasing fight together. Pacquiao would be the heavy favorite to defeat Horn if the two fight again.
Pacquiao vs. PBC fighters?
Boxing’s current political climate and the ongoing battle of promoters and television networks for the hearts and minds of boxing fans usually leaves many compelling fights between top level stars off the table. Fighters promoted by Top Rank and Golden Boy are almost never able to secure bouts with fighters signed to Al Haymon to appear under the Premier Boxing Champions banner and vice versa. But Pacquiao’s free agent status opens up new and interesting possibilities for the fighter to pursue noteworthy PBC fighters.
There had been lots of chatter about Pacquiao facing Mikey Garcia next. Garcia (39-0, 30 KOs) has been decimating competition at both lightweight and junior welterweight. Garcia is considered by most experts to be one of the top 10 pound-for-pound fighters in the sport. He’s the TBRB junior welterweight champion and a unified lightweight titleholder (WBC, IBF). While Garcia is hoping to land a big money bout against IBF welterweight titleholder Errol Spence, most boxing experts believe the jump up to 147 pounds would be too much for the diminutive Garcia who began his career at featherweight. A better welterweight target for Garcia would be Pacquiao who also began his career in a much lower weight class.
Spence (24-0, 21 KOs) is probably the best of the PBC welterweights. He’s considered by many to be on par with Crawford at 147 so it would be an incredibly dangerous bout for Pacquiao to go after at this point in his career. But Spence is aggressive and fights in a style that Pacquiao traditionally matches up very well against. Spence would be the favorite based on size, age and skill.
Slightly less dangerous to Pacquiao would be facing the winner of the Sept. 8 battle between Danny Garcia and Shawn Porter. Garcia (34-1, 20 KOs) and Porter (28-2-1, 17 KOs) are fighting for the vacant WBC welterweight title and the possibility of capturing another world title in his career could sway Pacquiao to seek out the winner. Pacquiao could find himself a slight favorite or underdog depending on which of the two fighters he would face, but both would be winnable fights.
The WBA welterweight champion is Keith Thurman. Thurman (28-0, 22 KOs) is a good boxer with tremendous power but Pacquiao’s speed and athleticism would probably give him the leg up in that potential matchup. Thurman hasn’t fought in over 16 months though and recent pictures suggest he’s not in fighting shape at the moment, so the likelihood of a Pacquiao vs. Thurman fight is pretty much nil.
Some fans want Pacquiao to face Adrien Broner. Broner (33-3-1, 24 KOs) is a solid contender at 147 but probably doesn’t have the skill to seriously compete with Pacquiao. Pacquiao would be a significant favorite and would likely stop Broner if the two were able to meet in a boxing ring.
Mayweather-Pacquiao 2?
Pacquiao lost a unanimous decision to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2015, but the circumstances surrounding the fight, and the fact it was the biggest box office bash in the history of the sport, have led many to suspect the two fighters would meet again in a rematch.
Yes, Mayweather (50-0, 27 KOs) is retired, but he’s unretired several times in his career for big money fights including last year’s crossover megafight with UFC star Conor McGregor. While it seems unlikely to happen, Mayweather-Pacquiao 2 would still be a huge worldwide event worth millions of dollars to both fighters so those following the sport can never say never to the idea of it happening again.
While Mayweather is 41, he’d still get the nod as the betting favorite should he fight Pacquiao again based on what happened in the first fight as well as his stylistic advantage over Pacquiao.
Pacquiao vs. McGregor?
McGregor’s bout against Mayweather last year was such a financial success and the MMA star made so much more money in the boxing ring than he did as a UFC fighter that the idea of him returning to the sport to face Pacquiao isn’t as far-fetched as one might think.
Pacquiao vs. McGregor would be an easy sell to the general public. According to CompuBox, McGregor landed more punches against Mayweather than did Pacquiao, and the general consensus is that Mayweather-McGregor was more fun to watch than Mayweather-Pacquiao.
The size difference between the two would lead to an easy promotion. McGregor is a junior middleweight and Pacquiao has only competed at the weight once back in 2010. Despite all that, Pacquiao would be a significant favorite to defeat McGregor and rightly so. He’s too fast and too good a boxer, and his aggressive style would likely lead to a stoppage win.
Pacquiao’s Top Targets
Pacquiao’s top targets should be Mayweather, McGregor and Lomachenko. Pacquiao would stand to make the most money facing either Mayweather or McGregor. Pacquiao’s reportedly injured shoulder heading into 2015 bout left many wondering how the fight might be different had the Filipino gone into things at his best, and Mayweather’s age might play more of a factor in the second fight than it did in the first. A Pacquiao-McGregor fight would be a worldwide spectacle, one Pacquiao would be heavily favored to win. Besides, it’d be interesting to see if Pacquiao could stop McGregor sooner than historical rival Mayweather. Finally, Lomachenko might be trying to climb up weight classes too fast, and Pacquiao would certainly be fit to test the validity of that theory. It’d be one of the biggest fights in boxing and a win for Pacquiao would be another huge feather in the cap of one of boxing’s true historically great champions.
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