MANILA, Philippines - Manny Pacquiao can look both ways and find a good fight in case talks about a potential fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. remain just that – pure talk.
There are other fights out there.
And in case Mayweather says he doesn’t want the fight, Pacquiao is not going to lose sleep or beg for it.
“There are a lot of exciting fights there that the fans are willing to see and pay for,” said Pacquiao’s ring adviser, Mike Koncz.
“But I don’t want to throw out names because if an opponent knows that we’re looking at them they’re going to jack up their prices,” he said.
Pacquiao knocked down Chris Algieri six times last Nov. 23 in Macau, proof that he hasn’t lost his power and speed and remained as the most exciting boxer today.
After the fight, Pacquiao and his promoter, Bob Arum, dared Mayweather to make the fight happen in the first six months of 2015.
Pacquiao said if it does, it’s not going to be a one-fight contract. He can fight Mayweather two or three times or until the day they both retire.
Mayweather has not responded to the challenge.
Koncz said Pacquiao can fight Mayweather at 147 pounds or a little higher but not at 154. If it’s against someone else, Pacquiao may decide to slide down to 140.
“Our attempt is to come down to 140. At 140 the knockouts will come back. Spectacular knockouts,” Koncz added.
“I think we prove tonight that fighting at a lighter weight, we can stand on our own. Again, I don’t want to throw up names,” he said.
The only name the Canadian ring adviser mentioned was that of Juan Manuel Marquez, whom he said is no longer in the radar.
“We don’t have anything to prove. Yes, we got knocked out but why did we get knocked out? Because Manny was getting beat up the entire fight? Absolutely not,” Koncz said.
“We got knocked out because we got careless. We were winning every round. If we didn’t get careless it would have been the other way around. I don’t know if fans still want to see a fifth fight,” he said.
At 140, the names out there are Danny Garcia, Lucas Matthyse, Lamont Peterson, Ruslan Provodnikov, Mike Alvarado, Adrian Broner and Jessie Vargas.
Koncz won’t point to any one of them.
Freddie Roach did.
“To me it’s Danny Garcia,” he said.