Filipino ace Pacquiao wants to fight Mayweather, Khan
Filipino star longs for Mayweather rematch
GENERAL SANTOS: Manny Pacquiao says he is good for “two or three” more fights, naming Terence Crawford, Vasyl Lomachenko or Floyd Mayweather as possible opponents after winning a new world title.
The 39-year-old Filipino shrugged off renewed calls by friends including Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to hang up his gloves after stopping World Boxing Association welterweight champion Lucas Matthysse on Sunday, saying he would be “lonely” outside the ring.
Pacquiao flew back from Kuala Lumpur to his southern Philippine home town on Monday, where a crowd of at least a thousand supporters waited for more than four hours to wave at or shake hands with him.
“I feel good for now. Boxing is my passion and I would be lonely if I quit boxing,” Pacquiao, who is also a senator, told reporters.
“I believe I still have two or three fights left in me.”
Pacquiao, already one of the greatest boxers in history with unprecedented world titles in eight weight classes, silenced some of his critics on Sunday by pummelling the dangerous Argentine into submission by technical knockout in the seventh round.
It was the first knockout win in nine years for the rags-to-riches southpaw, who is now an elected Philippine senator but who lost his World Boxing Organisation welterweight title to unfancied Australian Jeff Horn in Brisbane last year.
Pacquiao, now with a win-loss-draw record of 60-7-2, said he was enjoying his win and was not in negotiations at this time for his next bout.
However, he said he would relish another bout with Mayweather, who beat Pacquiao on points in 2015 and later retired undefeated.
“If Mayweather comes back to boxing there is a possibility of a rematch,” he said.
“But there are many other challenges, like Crawford, Lomachenko, Amir Khan and many others.”
Undefeated American Crawford beat Horn for the WBO welterweight title last
month, while Lomachenko holds the WBA super world lightweight title.
Pacquiao soaked up the adulation on Monday as a brass band played and a police and military honour guard staged a welcome at the airport in the city of General Santos on Mindanao island.
“I’m a diehard fan of the senator. As you can see, I brought my baby along because I wanted to see a man who had made the
Philippines proud,” resident Bayra Malagat told AFP as she joined the welcoming crowds while cradling her two-yearold boy.
“We’re here to see Manny. Hopefully we get a glimpse of him and get a photo, hopefully,” Cieran Fox, one of two southern Philippines-based Irishmen in the welcoming crowd, said.
Earlier, Pacquiao called on Mayweather
to come out of retirement for a rematch, saying “let’s do a second one.”
“Mayweather? If he decides to go back to boxing then that is the time we are going to call the shots,” an effervescent Pacquiao told reporters at the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur after his stunning win on Sunday.
“I have the belt, so it’s up to him. If he wants to come back in boxing let’s do a second one.”