Hold the gravy. Manny Pacquiao doesn’t plan on packing on some pounds to fight middleweight champion Sergio Martinez.
Pacquiao already fought a larger opponent when he won the super welterweight title, defeating Antonio Maragarito on Nov. 13. But the Filipino fighter’s promoter, Bob Arum, does not want his client to move up two weight classes, despite offers from Martinez’s camp, according to ABS-CBNnews.com.
“Yes, it is an absurd proposal, at least right now,” Arum told Michael Marley of Examiner.com
During the fight with Margarito, Pacquiao suffered considerable health damage, prompting his mother and his wife to call for his retirement. Pacquiao still wants to keep fighting, but Arum ideally wants him to stay at the welterweight class.
“Manny is going to fight as high as 147 pounds, for right now, and that’s that,” Arum said. “I’ve got [trainer] Freddie Roach‘s approval and agreement on that. … Manny has other options at this point.”
Some of those other options include what would be an epic fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr., or other boxers who are Pacquiao’s size, such as Shane Mosley or Juan Manuel Marquez.
