Ever since arriving in the United States in 2001, Manny Pacquiao has been involved in several classic fights and has enjoyed a large amount of fame, success, and glory in the sport of boxing. However, after the recent news about Pacquiao’s final fight possibly being in April of next year, “Pacman” needs an opponent to step in the ring with, and that man may be Terrence “Bud” Crawford.
In an interview with Elie Seckbach of ESNEWS, Gabriel Rosado shared his thoughts on the potential Crawford-Pacquiao showdown that could be Pacquiao’s final fight. Rosado thinks that it is a tough fight for Manny at 38 years old vs the younger Crawford. The main concern with this fight is the weight the contest would be held at with Manny being a welterweight and Crawford a super lightweight at this point in their careers.
“Pacquiao shouldn’t be the one losing weight, he’s the Hall of Famer. So it should be Crawford going to 147.” Gabe then continued by stating how boxers in the past never were the same after having to drain weight, such as Roy Jones Jr vs Tarver and Oscar De la Hoya vs Manny.
The BKB middleweight champ Rosado also briefly spoke about the GGG-Lemieux PPV numbers, claiming that he was not surprised it did not generate as many buys as a pay per view event such as Canelo-Angulo, which did 400k buys.
The question is whether this is a smart final fight for Manny in terms of business. Crawford is not exactly a star yet in terms of marketability, and to be honest, a rematch with Mayweather, a third fight with Timothy Bradley, or even a first meeting with Amir Khan would make far much more sense financially then a fight with Crawford.
It must be said that one could not condemn Team Pacquiao for taking a Crawford matchup, simply because it is an extremely difficult fight. Crawford is a gifted boxer who switches from orthodox to southpaw with ease. He has a style that could possibly frustrate Manny and could look eerily similar to Manny’s last fight in which he was simply outboxed.
It is intriguing that the rumored initial weight for this potential PPV clash is at 140. Pacquiao has not fought at 140 since he knocked out Ricky Hatton in 2009. It would not be fair for Manny to go to super lightweight at this point in his career, even if it was for a title, which would be virtually meaningless to Manny if he is retiring after the fight. Crawford is a big enough guy where he could easily fight at 147 or even a catchweight of 144, a weight Manny has fought at in the past.
