Former world champions Daniel Jacobs and Manny Pacquiao could soon be seeing their next fights finalized as soon as this week.
According to ESPN’s Dan Rafael, Jacobs, who has been penciled in to fight at the Barclays Center on HBO on April 28 for quite some time, could potentially fight junior middleweight Maciej Sulecky. According to the report, Sulecky, who won an IBF title eliminator in his last fight against Jack Culcay on the undercard of an October World Boxing Super Series cruiserweight tournament card.
There were some preliminary talks of Jacobs, in the second fight of a multi-fight deal with promoter Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing, fighting former middleweight world champion Andy Lee or Spike O’Sullivan, but Sulecky has emerged as the favorite to land a fight against Jacobs.
As for Pacquiao, Bob Arum told the Los Angeles Times that deals which would have Pacquiao, WBO welterweight champion Jeff Horn and former undisputed junior welterweight champion Terence Crawford fight on the same ESPN card. The card would likely take place on April 14 at Madison Square Garden, most likely on pay-per-view. Horn would be defending his title against Crawford, the mandatory challenger to Horn's WBO title.
No opponent for Pacquiao has been confirmed by Arum, but two likely names that are in play to fight Pacquiao are former world champion Mike Alvarado and current WBA “regular” welterweight champion Lucas Matthysse. After Matthysse won the title against Tewa Kiram on January 27, Matthysse, as well as Golden Boy Promotions, said he would love to fight Pacquiao in his first title defense.
