Manny Pacquiao's return fight against Jessie Vargas looks like it won't be his last fight, after all. A ton of names have been thrown around as future opponents for Pacquiao's next opponent beyond Vargas: Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia, Terence Crawford and now Vasyl Lomachenko.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum expressed a lot of interest in making a Pacquiao vs. Lomachenko fight a reality. He spoke to Fighthype.com and said that he wants to make that fight happen more than any other fight involving Pacquiao.
“Terence Crawford is a possibility [for Pacquiao], as is Vasyl Lomachenko, because that’s a fight I want to see more than any other fight that’s out there,” Arum said. “No, Manny isn’t 147. Manny fights 135 and 140. No, it won’t be an issue [for Pacquiao to fight Lomachenko], guarantee. That’s the least of the problems. People don’t believe it. I give Manny Pacquiao the options, and he picks the opponent. Lomachenko has a real tough fight coming up in November with [Nicholas] Walters, and Crawford is going to fight on December 10. We hope to have an opponent by the end of the day. So either of them are real possibilities. Yeah, Garcia is a terrific fight [for Pacquiao]. Thurman is a terrific fighter. They would figure in, but they would have to get the issue of whose better between the two resolved.”
When asked whether or not he would be willing to fight Lomachenko, Pacquiao said he would be able to make weight for that fight. Lomachenko's professional experience is very limited, having fought only 7 times, with 6 wins, but he is already the WBO Super Featherweight Champion and is a former two-time Olympic gold medalist. Lomachenko is defending his title against Nicholas Walters on November 26.
“I can still make 135,” Pacquiao said. “Remember, when I fought De La Hoya? I weighed 135, just moved up to 147. During my training, if I just eat regularly, not putting more extra rice or anything else, my weight is 141, 140."
Pacquiao is facing Vargas on November 5 in Las Vegas on pay-per-view.
