Manny Pacquiao announced that he will fight on June 24th in Malaysia against possible Lucas Matthysse, but according to Dan Rafael of espn.com, promoter Bob Arum says no deal is in place.
“It’s already final I’m going to fight in Malaysia on June 24,” Pacquiao told the Manila Times. “It is against Matthysse. I’ll be ready for the preparation and it’s going to be 11 weeks.”
“For years we’ve had these proposals from people in the Mideast, whether it’s Abu Dhabi, or the Emirates, or Saudi Arabia, and we’re still waiting for the first deposit for the fight to happen. It didn’t, so now we’ve shifted our attention from the Mideast to the Far East and we’re looking for Malaysian money,” Arum said, laughing, because he has been down this road many times.
Eric Gomez, the president of Golden Boy Promotions, which represents Matthysse, told ESPN that Pacquiao adviser Michael Koncz had contacted him about a possible Pacquiao-Matthysse fight but that they have not made a deal yet.
“Michael Koncz reached out to me and all we did was talk and that’s all I can say,” Gomez said. “We’re interested in the fight. It’s very preliminary.”
“If the money comes up then I’ve agreed to sign on,” Arum said. “We would handle the logistics, we would handle the undercard and we would handle the television. All they have to do is say they got the $5 million of the $15 million. That makes it legit. [But] I’m not booking my flight [to Malaysia] yet.”
Arum had offered Pacquiao a fight with faded former junior welterweight titlist Mike Alvarado on April 14 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas in the co-feature position on the card headlined by former undisputed junior welterweight world champion Terence Crawford’s move up to welterweight to challenge Jeff Horn for the title Horn controversially won by decision from Pacquiao in July.
Pacquiao, however, is said to have been stung by the offer of an undercard spot on a card headlined by a fighter most thought he defeated. Beyond that, Pacquiao has deep tax issues despite earning hundreds of millions of dollars that Arum said would keep him from fighting in the United States.
“He’s afraid whatever deal he makes with the IRS they’ll seize all the money so he can’t fight here,” Arum said. “We thought we could work it out with the IRS.”
“I like [Matthysse’s] aggressive fighting style,” Pacquiao said in announcing the fight. “That’s what I want, to entertain the boxing fans. Besides, Matthysse is not a dirty fighter and I highly respect him for that.”
