The return of Manny Pacquiao (59-7-2, 38 KOs) is targeted on April 14 at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
The fight is almost finalized and it would be Top Rank’s first ESPN pay-per-view event. The card would feature Pacquiao making his New York City debut against an opponent still to be officially named.
As previously reported, former WBO junior welterweight champion Mike Alvarado (38-4, 26 KOs) is a leading candidate as opponent for the fight, which Arum would not confirm nor deny.
The other PPV attraction would be Terence Crawford (32-0, 23 KOs) challenging WBO welterweight champion Jeff Horn (18-0-1, 12 KOs), the Australian boxer who defeated Pacquiao in an upset decision to seize the title before 51,000 plus crowd at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.
Crawford became undisputed junior welterweight champion, would be making his debut at the tough welterweight class.
“We’re going over contracts with four guys that we handle, and everything’s coming along nicely,” Arum told LA Times. Pacquiao has been inactive since the upset loss to Horn.
The former eight division world champion is concentrating on his duties as a senator in the Philippines. With Alvarado, Pacquiao could grab the opportunity to seize his first knockout victory since 2009, when he stopped Miguel Cotto in a welterweight title match at a catch-weight of 145-pounds.
Pacquiao is slated to fight the winner of Crawford vs. Horn title tiff possibly at the end of the year.
Arum said he was expecting to talk with Pacquiao manager Michael Koncz this week to discuss details regarding the bout. Koncz declined to identify “a front-runner or back-runner” to fight Pacquiao, but told LA Times Monday that he hoped to finalize the deal by this week.
Alvarado was best remembered when he faced former Pacquiao foe Brandon Rios at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California on October 13. Alvarado was ahead on the judges’ scorecards until the 6th round where Rios hurt him with a booming right hand.
Rios was able win by TKO as referee Pat Russell stopped the bout at 1:57 of the 7th round. The fight was declared the 2012 Fight of the Year by the Sports Illustrated.
A much anticipated rematch happened on March 30, 2013 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada. At stake was the WBO interim light welterweight title.
Alvarado defeated Rios by unanimous decision with scores of 115-113, 115-113 and 114-113 to even up the victory score with Rios. On Jan 24, in Alvarado’s home town of Denver, Colorado, Rios punished Alvarado for 3 rounds before the referee stopped the fight before the start of the fourth round.
