Manny Pacquiao’s next possible opponent Mikey Garcia waiting for a ‘real offer’
- Mexican-American admits that preliminary talks have begun with the Philippines icon but they ‘haven’t sat down to discuss it’
- ‘Pacman’ is carefully choosing his next opponent for early 2020 but has ruled out a rematch with Mayweather for the time being
Manny Pacquiao’s possible fight against former four-division world champion Mikey Garcia was brought up again with the 31-year-old Mexican-American saying he’s waiting for a “real offer”.
The Philippines icon is looking for his next opponent after stringing together several outstanding performances in the last 14 months, most notably against previously unbeaten Keith Thurman in July for the WBA super welterweight title in Las Vegas, which the 40-year-old won by split decision.
With the eight-division world champion supposedly back in training – according to his latest photo posted on Instagram – the fighting senator from Sarangani province is having preliminary discussions with several fighters as he lines up his next bout for early 2020.
Garcia (39-1-0, 30 KOs) is keen to fight the Philippines’ greatest boxer (62-7-2, 39 KOs) and is hoping he gets the nod ahead of top welterweights, Shawn Porter, IFB welterweight champion Errol Spence Jnr and WBO title holder Terence Crawford.
It would make sense for “Pacman” to fight a smaller welterweight such as Garcia, whose only defeat in 40 professional fights came against the highly regarded Spence, whom he lost by unanimous decision in March in Arlington, Texas. Garcia failed to win a single round on all three fight scorecards as the bigger Spence won in convincing fashion.
Garcia, of Moreno Valley, California, is optimistic that he will go mano a mano with the Filipino in 2020 and he’s hoping a deal could be reached according to an interview with YouTube channel EsNews.
“It’s been, not an actual offer presented but they brought it up again, it’s always been in the talks, a possibility,” said Garcia of possibly fighting Pacquiao. “I said yeah we would definitely love to look at that more. But it hasn’t come [to fruition yet],” he said.