Via Allan Fox: Former eight world champion Manny Pacquiao says he’s willing to accept the idea of picking a winner in a fight between Errol Spence Jr and Terence Crawford. Pacquiao will need to retire to fight the winner of that clash.
If Pacquiao really wants to fight the winner, he needs to get back in the ring and have an underpowered fight against a top-level opponent. The boxing public would be more interested to see Pacquiao take on winner Spence-Crawford if he shows that he still possesses his skills by beating a top 20 opponent first.
43-year-old Pacquiao (62-8-2, 39 KOs) was asked on Thursday whether he would like to take on the still-unsigned Spence-Crawford winner, and he asked in the affirmative.
Despite his advanced age, Pacquiao looked fine last year in a loss to Yordenis Ugas in August 2021. If Pacquiao hadn’t had a cramp in his calf after all the runs he did in training camp, he would be. He could have defeated Ugas. The scores are 115-113, 116-112 and 116-112.
“Why not? If possible. We will see the results first. I’ll see,” Manny Pacquiao told media when asked if he wants to fight winner Errol Spence Jr vs. Terence Crawford or not.
Given the pace at which negotiations are underway for Spence-Crawford, Pacquiao may have been in his 70s by the time the fight was made. Spence & Crawford may need to move on as they have sacrificed a good part of 2022 to try to fight together, and they have nothing to show for their wasted time.
Given the amount of time Spence and Crawford took to make their one big fight, they could have fought twice this year and made as much money as they fought.
Pacquiao has an exhibition match coming up in December with a certain unknown, allowing him to remove some cobwebs from his game. Pacquiao needs to get back into the ring with a real fighter from the top 20, like Blair Cobbs, Abel Ramos, or a rematch with Yordenis Ugas.
It is important for Pacquiao to resist quality opposition if he is ever going to go up against Spence or Crawford. Those two wouldn’t want to fight Pacquiao if they believed he was shot.
