Koncz tells Top Rank that’s what’ll it take to make Pacquiao vs. Crawford happen.
Sen. Manny Pacquiao wants to resurface in late-April for a guaranteed purse of $20-million against undefeated American Terence Crawford.
“If it’s Crawford that Top Rank wants for Manny Pacquiao, then we’ll fight Crawford but we want a guarantee of $20-million,” said Pacquiao adviser Mike Koncz yesterday after conferring with his boss.
Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum recently spoke about a mouth-watering matchup between Pacquiao and the fast-rising Crawford and Koncz insists the Filipino champion’s camp isn’t afraid to make that fight.
But Koncz says that for a fight to happen, it has to be made for April so it would perfectly suit and adapt to the 38-year-old Pacquiaio’s hectic schedule as a lawmaker.
“The (Philippine) Senate will take a break starting mid-March and will resume sessions on May 2,” said Koncz, noting that Arum’s plans to hold Pacquiao’s return fight in late-June is not feasible as the Senate would already be in session by then.
Koncz says he learned a lot from the last fight when Pacquiao fought Jessie Vargas.
“It was a demanding schedule because after his Senate work, he had to go to the gym and train,” said Koncz.
Pacquiao (59-6-2 with 38 KOs), fortunately, managed to handle Vargas pretty well, flooring the youthful Mexican-American en route to a unanimous decision last November at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas.
Crawford (30-0 with 21 KOs), 29, had little trouble disposing of Carlos Molina of the US in his last outing last December.
Koncz believes the asking price of $20-million is not asking for the moon as Pacquiao has been regularly getting around that same guaranteed amount except when he fought and lost to Floyd Mayweather in 2015.