By REYNALD MAGALLON
Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao is planning for an exhibition fight just before the year ends as the supposed fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in September is now tentatively scheduled to happen in late January, according to MP Promotions CEO Jas Mathur on Monday, July 13.
Speaking in front of the members of the press at the MannyPay headquarters in Makati City, Mathur revealed that the camp of the only eight-division world champion is currently working on possible fights, particularly, an exhibition.
“We’re working on a few different fights right now for him. Presently there’s likely going to be an exhibition that we’re trying to put together in the fourth quarter of this year,” said Mathur.
The MP promotions executive said there are no official names yet on who Pacquiao will be fighting against in the exhibition but Mathur clarified that a possible pro fight isn’t completely out of the table just yet.
“Nobody is set, no opponent is set in stone yet. We’re still working on that,” said Mathur.
“There’s a possibility (of a pro-fight). There is a possibility. That’s there, but nothing is confirmed yet. So there’s nothing that’s been solidified or confirmed at all yet,” he added.
What’s confirmed so far, however, according to Mathur is that no Mayweather-Pacquiao rematch is happening this year.
The tentative date is late January in a venue he cannot disclose yet, although assured it will still happen in Las Vegas.
“The Floyd fight that everybody wants to know about, that fight is being postponed,” said Mathur.
“Right now the new tentative date that we have is going to be at the end of January. But there’s still other technicalities that need to be addressed before and based on other contractual obligations that Floyd has. So those need to be met in order for this to happen,” he added.
