EVEN if they still have to finalize his opponent, Top Rank Inc. has already booked its superstar fighter, Manny Pacquiao, to a ring date for 2008.
Bob Arum booked Pacquiao to fight on March 15 in the US even if his opponent will not be known until the middle of November.
Groomed to be the next opponent is Juan Manuel Marquez (47-3-1, 35KOs), who is mandated by the WBC to fight Pacquiao.
However, Marquez will defend his WBC super featherweight title against Rocky Juarez (27-3, 19 KOs) on Nov. 3 in Desert Diamond Casino in Tucson, Arizona.
Also eyed to pit their skills against the Filipino whirlwind is the winner of the Joan Guzman (27-0, 17KOs) vs. Humberto Soto (43-5-2, 27KOs) match for the WBO super featherweight belt on Nov. 17 at the Borgata Hotel Casino in Atlantic City.
Aside from the four, WBC lightweight champion David Diaz is also a potential foe should Pacquiao move up to the lightweight division.
During the press conference for the Marquez vs. Juarez fight, Marquez said he is not yet thinking of Pacquiao for the moment because he is concentrating on his Nov. 3 fight against Juarez
“I know he’s there, but I am not going to think about Manny Pacquiao because I’ve got Nov. 3, that I need to fight Rocky Juarez, and that’s all that matters up to this point. To have titles, I have to fight Manny Pacquiao. There are many things in the future. I’m just going to keep it there. But the most important thing that I’m concentrating is Nov. 3. I need to fight Rocky Juarez, win over Rocky Juarez,” Marquez said in a report posted at fightnews.com.
Neglected
On the other hand, Juarez, who also fought Marco Antonio Barrera twice is not comfortable being neglected as the possible opponent of Pacquiao and is eager to show that he can fight Pacquiao.
“I was watching the Barrera-Pacquiao fight, and all I could hear is Pacquiao vs. Marquez. I’m thinking as I’m sitting on the couch, Marquez still has to fight Rocky Juarez, why are they counting me out? But it’s not something that I allow to affect me. It just gives me that much more motivation to just train harder, because they’re counting me out,” Juarez said.
Meanwhile, this early, celebrated trainer Freddie Roach announced that he wants Pacquiao to start his training camp two months before the fight.
Roach said that he will follow Pacquiao wherever he wants to train but if he is going to train in the Philippines, like what he did against Barrera, they will only stay for one month and then complete the next four weeks at his Wild Card gym in Los Angeles, California. (RCM)
