MANILA, Philippines - The World Boxing Council has ranked Manny Pacquiao as the number one contender in the welterweight division following his dominant win over Brandon Rios in Macau last Nov. 24.
The move comes as a surprise since Pacquiao wasn’t in the rankings released by the Mexico-based sanctioning organization last month, leading to speculations that this was an effort to pave the way for a showdown between the Filipino and Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Mayweather holds the WBC welterweight belt, and with this latest development, could be mandated to defend his title against Pacquiao or risk being stripped of it.
Previously not among the WBC’s welterweight rankings, Pacquiao leapfrogged over No. 2-ranked Luis Abregu of Argentina and No. 3-rated Amir Khan.
Khan, who used to be trained by Freddie Roach and was a former sparring partner of Pacquiao, is reportedly being considered by Mayweather to be his next opponent.
The undefeated American has four fights left in his massive six-fight deal with US broadcaster Showtime. In his past two bouts with the network, he routed Robert Guerrero and Saul Alvarez to preserve his immaculate record.
But even Showtime has openly expressed interest on a showdown between two of the sports’ biggest stars.
A Mayweather-Pacquiao fight could go down as the richest ever in history, and while previous attempts to make it happen failed, the boxing world isn’t giving up on seeing the bout.
While Pacquiao has gone on record about his willingness to face Mayweather, the latter isn’t keen on entertaining the idea. The fighting congressman is slated to return to the ring on April 12 next year, with Juan Manuel Marquez, Timothy Bradley and Ruslan Provodnikov as possible foes.