Pacquiao, Larios seal June bout

It’s green and go for the Pacquiao-Larios fight.

Manny Pacquiao finally gets his wish to fight before his countrymen after gaining worldwide recognition in the US with his victories over a couple of Mexican legends as he sealed a showdown with Oscar Larios in June at the Araneta Coliseum.

Sources told The STAR yesterday that the 10-round, non-title fight has been confirmed over the weekend with Larios, the former WBC super bantamweight champion, finally agreeing to come here and rumble with the Filipino boxing icon in what serves to be Pacquiao’s tune-up for his rubber match with Erik Morales in September.

Larios, citing the unstable political climate here, recently announced that he’s backing out of the Pacquiao showdown but apparently had a change of heart after he was promised a guaranteed purse of somewhere in the low middle of a six-digit figure.

Pacquiao, who dealt Morales his worst beating via a 10th round TKO in Las Vegas in January, is assured of a $1 million purse.

In fact, the Filipino boxing icon has called off his scheduled trip to the US today where he was to meet Shelly Finkel, head of his management team, to work out and negotiate for his possible rival after Larios declared his withdrawal.

Instead, Pacquiao, who broke into the world boxing consciousness when he demolished Marco Antonio Barrera in November 2003 at the Alamodome, will leave for the US in the second week of April to train for two weeks and at the same time promote the fight there.

When he returns, he would be with trainer Freddie Roach to resume his training in Baguio in a special camp set up by San Miguel Corp. president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang.

ABS-CBN, which holds the right to stage and underwrite Pacquiao’s fight here, will announce within the week whether the upcoming fight, also billed as the RP-Mexico showdown, will be held on June 24 or 25.

As this developed, ABS-CBN president Gabby Lopez left yesterday for the US where he would meet with HBO officials in San Francisco to discuss the possible PPV (Pay-Per-View) coverage of the Pacquiao-Larios fight.

Meanwhile, a talent-laden roster of Filipino boxers will be in the undercard of the Pacquiao-Larios bout with Randy Juico set to avenge his loss to former IBF lightweight champion Javier Jauregui. The others are former super flyweight champion Gerry Peñalosa and Rey "Boom Boom" Bautista, who is also scheduled to see action in the undercard of the Barrera-Ricardo Juarez fight on May 20.