A few interesting tidbits of news have trickled out over the last few days. We may or may not have a Manny Pacquiao fight, Matchroom and Top Rank may be about to work together, a major Olympian has turned pro, and more.
- Manny Pacquiao’s (59-7-2, 38 KOs) briefly reported June 24th fight against Lucas Matthysee (39-4, 36 KOs) in Malaysia is not as official as it momentarily seemed. Top Rank’s longtime head Bob Arum has gone on record to say he doesn’t believe the fight is happening. Of course, there also have been rumors that Pacquiao is no longer under contract with Top Rank and it did seem like he was planning on going through with this under his own MP Promotions banner. Rumor has it that Pacman was also looking to take this fight without longtime trainer Freddie Roach. We’ll see how this plays out going forward.
- ESPN’s Dan Rafael reported an interesting bit of news concerning British Olympic gold medalist and recent lightweight title challenger Luke Campbell (17-2, 14 KOs) and Top Rank. There is a plan being discussed in which Campbell signs a three fight deal with Top Rank to make them his co-promoters alongside Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing. The plan would then be to feature Campbell twice on Top Rank on ESPN in the United States to build his name to the US audience before having him fight Vasyl Lomachenko on the series in the third fight. That one would likely be in the UK where it could do a much bigger gate. This is a creative, proactive solution for Top Rank to make sure they have opponents for their pound for pound king down the road and also likely the best Matchroom can do for Campbell at the moment. It makes sense all around.
- Recent Danny Jacobs victim Luis Arias (18-1, 9 KOs) has been released from his Roc Nation Sports promotional contract and is now a free agent. The Jay-Z spin off sports agency company has done a horrendous job in boxing, so I consider it a win whenever anyone escapes. Arias has also said he is moving down to junior middleweight. No news yet on a new promotional situation for the Cuban-American fighter.
- Finally, Eddie Hearn has snapped himself up another major prospect in 26 year old Olympic gold medalist Daniyar Yeleussinov of Kazakhstan. Yeleussinov is a two time Olympian, winning gold in Rio in 2016. He also won gold at the 2013 world championships having been one of the top amateurs in the world for some time. Yeleussinov will fight professionally as a welterweight and likely be featured on both Hearn’s traditional UK and new US shows.
