Fight fans have been salivating on mere thoughts of a Manny Pacquiao vs. Vasyl Lomachenko showdown. The tremendous hype surrounding this fantasy fight shouldn’t be surprising at all since these are two of the most talented little men who ever wore a pair of boxing gloves.
While Pacquiao and Lomachenko reached their peaks 10 years apart, with the Filipino fighting champ dominating the late 2000s to early 2010s and the Ukrainian lording over the featherweight and lightweight class in the latter part of this decade, many are still fascinated what kind of a fight these shoo-in Hall of Famers would produce if they ever decide to slug it out inside the ring.
Loma-Pac still possible
Bob Arum, the legendary Top-Rank head promoter, said that he’s open to booking a Pacquiao-Lomachenko fight so long as the eight-division world champ agrees to come down to 135 pounds.
“On Lomachenko v Pacquiao, we can never say never. But I mean you don’t take a guy who’s 126-lbs and have him fight at 147-lbs against Pacquiao – or even a catchweight of 144-lbs,” Arum told World Boxing News.
Arum, who promoted the majority of Pacquiao’s biggest fights, thinks the Filipino could be eyeing a match with four-division world champion Mikey Garcia at Jr. Welterweight (140 pounds). If that happens, the promoter believes arranging a Pacquiao-Lomachenko fight at lightweight would then become a lot more realistic.
The Catchweight Magic
During Pacquiao’s time at Top-Rank Promotions, Arum had cleverly and notoriously exploited the catchweight clause in their favor, enabling them to offset or neutralize the bulk advantage an opponent would normally enjoy against a naturally smaller Pacman in a regular boxing match.
An argument can be even made that the promoter’s catchweight magic had somehow aided the Filipino in his fights larger boxers like Oscar Dela Hoya, Miguel Cotto, and Antonio Margarito, an.
Now, it looks like Arum will be trying to flip the script against his former ward, Pacquiao, in the event he faces the consensus pound-for-pound king. The promoter knows Pacquiao, despite his insistence that he can easily sweat down to 135, would still encounter weight problems as he’s been fighting as a welterweight since 2009.
In fact, the last time he fought below 147 pounds was against Ricky Hatton at Jr. Welterweight in May 2009, while Pacman’s only lightweight appearance happened against David Diaz in 2008.
While a potential move to the lightweight division would favor Pacquiao in terms of speed and power, fighting someone like Lomachenko who has been bulldozing everybody at 135 would still be a tall order regardless of Pacman’s greatness.
This is the reason why Arum is such a shrewd operator. He always finds a way to give his fighter an advantage, no matter how small it is. Pacquiao, if he really has the intention to mix it out with Hi-Tech Lomachenko, must not allow the fight to happen at 135 pounds with a catchweight clause or else it’s not going to end well for him.
A lightweight, Loma is clearly the faster, more superior all-around fighter than Pacquiao. What more can a catchweight give to him? It would just be a boxing clinic in favor of Lomachenko, a scene no one would ever want to see especially for a legend like the Pacman.
