Roach eyes Valero for Pacquiao

If a lucrative fight with Floyd Mayweather won’t push through, top trainer Freddie Roach is eyeing Venezuelan knockout king Edwin Valero or Mexican master counter-puncher Juan Manuel Marquez as Manny Pacquiao's next foe.

After steering Pacquiao to a lopsided win over Joshua Clottey of Ghana over the weekend in Dallas, Roach said the most logical fight to take in the event the Mayweather fight doesn't take place is to bring in Valero.

The Venezuelan fighter has a perfect 27-0 win-loss record with all wins by knockout, including 19 in the first round.

“If we do Valero there, we could sell out the whole place,” Roach told boxingscene.com.

Being a big puncher and a southpaw like Pacquiao, Valero, according to Roach, is “marketable.”

Roach also mentioned Marquez as another bright prospect.

Marquez drew with Pacquiao the first time in May 2004 but narrowly lost a 12-round split decision in the rematch in March 2008.

“Personally, that’s the fight that I want,” said Roach, who believes the third fight will eventually lead to a Pacquiao knockout victory.

As soon as Pacquiao emerged victorious against Clottey before some 51,000 fans at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, Texas, the name of Mayweather was immediately brought up but the American fighter’s insistence that an Olympic-style drug testing be done on Pacquiao will jeopardize the plan of pitting them against each other.

One thing that also prevents the camps of Pacquiao and Mayweather to revive talks is the fact that Mayweather has to hurdle past Shane Mosley in their May 1 clash.

Whoever wins that match is likely to be pitted against Pacquiao.

Meanwhile, Erik Morales, who is coming off a 2 1/2 year layoff, will return to the ring on March 27 against Jose Alfaro of Nicaragua.

The last fighter to beat Pacquiao, Morales believes he can beat Pacquiao again if they fight at a heavier weight class.

Even though Morales beat Pacquiao in their March 2005 encounter, that painful loss was avenged in brutal fashion in January 2006 and in November of that same year as the Gensan pride posted tenth-round and third-round stoppages, respectively.

Pacquiao’s concert cancelled
HONOLULU, Hawaii (AFP) — A lack of interest in ticket sales has forced a promoter to cancel a concert by Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao in Hawaii, said a spokesman for Island Fire Productions.

The concert was scrapped just days after Pacquiao beat Ghana’s Joshua Clottey in a welterweight world championship fight in front of a crowd of 50,994 at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, Texas.

Ryan Chang of Island Fire said Tuesday that just 603 tickets had been sold for the concert in Waikiki meaning he would have to absorb a loss of about $50,000 if the show went ahead.

Source: Nick Giongco  | Manila Bulletin

Valero is next after Clottey?

This is one match-up that will be sealed in the wink of an eye. Edwin Valero, the Venezuelan knockout king, has made himself available for Manny Pacquiao, assuming of course the Filipino gets past Joshua Clottey on March 13 in Dallas, Texas.

Still fresh from stopping Antonio DeMarco of Mexico for his 27th straight knockout win in as many fights, Valero, the current World Boxing Council lightweight champion, told fightnews that he will not make it hard for promoters to finalize a deal between him and Pacquiao.

“I am ready to go up to whatever weight Manny wants in order to fight him and, furthermore, I will not require the he be tested for anything,” said the 28-year-old Valero, referring to the arduous ordeal that marred the collapse of the proposed Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather bout.

“I just want to get in the ring with Manny. Whoever beats Pacquiao becomes the top dog in boxing. Pacman is my main objective for 2010,” added Valero, who is almost the same height as Pacquiao at 5-6 and also a southpaw.

Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum said Valero is an ideal foe for Pacquiao in the future owing to his explosive power and devil-may-care style.

In the event talks to revive a Mayweather fight do not materialize, Arum has the likes of Valero on standby.

If Pacquiao disposes of Clottey — as many ringsiders believe he would — a fight with Mayweather should be scheduled next.

Mayweather, however, also has to clear a major stumbling block on May 1 when he faces Shane Mosley.

Source: Nick Giongco  | Manila Bulletin

Pacquiao-Valero would be more exciting than a fight against Mayweather

The spectacular performance of WBC lightweight champion Edwin Valero who hammered interim champion Antonio DeMarco so badly for most of nine rounds that the Mexican’s corner stopped the fight before the start of the tenth has once again revived talk of a clash between the Venezuelan knockout artist and the “Fighter of the Decade” Manny Pacquiao.

Valero has always wanted to fight Pacquiao and even when visiting the Philippines as guest at Pacquiao’s 30th birthday celebration in December 2008, Valero reiterated his desire to face Pacquiao and predicted he would beat him in an interview with us at the PLDT offices of businessman-sportsman Manny Pangilinan when Valero and former WBC lightweight champion David Diaz paid Pangilinan a courtesy call.
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Pacquiao has said he would never back out of a challenge provided the negotiations go well and Top Rank promoter Bob Arum believes a Pacquiao-Valero showdown would be sensational but that Valero will first have to move up to 140 pounds and prove himself at that weight before he get a shot at the reigning pound-for-pound king.

Boxingscene.com’s Rick Reeno spoke to Arum who wants Valero to fight some of the better names at 140 pounds including WBO champion Timothy Bradley to earn a shot at Pacquiao.

Arum told Reeno, “Valero is a very smart guy. He has a real goal. He wants to fight Manny Pacquiao and that’s the reason he went with us. But to fight Manny Pacquiao he has to prove himself at 140. He has to get a visa. I won’t have any problem getting him licensed in Nevada now that they changed the rule. It used to be where, if you had a bad [MRI] result, you were out. They changed that and Valero’s MRIs are perfect.”

Arum indicated the plan for Valero would be move up to 140 because he is having trouble making the lightweight limit of 135 pounds.

Like most fight fans as well as the media, Reeno said Arum was impressed with Valero’s performance on Saturday. He displayed his ability to box in a fight where most expected DeMarco to play the role of the boxer.

Arum noted Valero “ has balls, maybe too much balls. Valero showed that he has a lot more boxing skill than people thought.” Arum added “ A fight between him and Manny would be f**king unbelievable.”

A clash between the undefeated Valero who has a record of 27 knockouts in 27 fights and Pacaquio because of their aggressive styles produce an action-packed bout that would surely excite fight fans far more than the defensive-oriented Mayweather would against Pacquiao.

Source: Ronnie Nathanielsz  | InsideSports.ph