By DING MARCELO
MACAU – Manny Pacquiao’s impressive victory over Brandon Rios has revived talks of a possible encounter with Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Several questions were asked during yesterday’s press conference regarding the future of such a match up and one can almost see the light shining from the eyes of Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum.
He needed a win like the one fashioned by Pacquiao. Though Pacquiao did not knock out Rios as everyone had so badly wanted, at least the win was a very convincing one and that made the Filipino fighter relevant again.
It’s difficult to imagine how much revenue will be generated by such a fight pitting two of the most glorious fighters of their era.
Many people have been asking for it and it was not lost on the reporters yesterday.
“Yes,” Pacquiao said. “I’m willing to fight Floyd.”
To this statement, the crowd applauded.
But Pacquiao knows that it would take some doing for the fight go through. After all, it’s been in discussed at length many times in the past and nothing happened.
“It’s really up to him,” said Pacquiao, referring to Mayweather.
As for his next fight, his trainer Freddie Roach said he would not mind Pacquiao meeting Juan Manuel Marquez for the fifth time and also a rematch with Tim Bradley, “to get revenge.”
But he also said a fight with Mayweather is something to look forward to.
Pacquiao was glad to dismiss talks of his retirement as premature and reports of that happening were exaggerated.
“I told them this is not my time to retire,” he said. “My journey will continue and we will rise again.”
“And that’s what happened. Thank God.”
He said his plan against Rios from the beginning was to box “like a young Manny Pacquiao.”
“I wanted to show my boxing skills and I proved it.”