by Anna Mae Areja
MANILA– Manny Pacquiao confirms in an ambush interview on Wednesday, March 7, that his next fight will be on June 24, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
According to Pacquiao (59-7-2, 38 knockouts), there is greater possibility that his opponent will be World Boxing Association (WBA) (regular) welterweight champion Lucas Matthysse (39-4, 38 KOs), who earned his title in January 2018.
The Argentine was previously the World Boxing Council (WBC) interim super lightweight title holder from 2012 to 2013.
Pacquiao's other choice was American former WBA super-welterweight and World Boxing Council welterweight champ Danny Garcia (34-1, 20 KOs), who was unbeaten until last year.
Pacman was eyeing his match to happen in May, but due to the conflict with his Senate duties, he decided to extend it to June 2018.
"Supposedly May pero sabi ko may trabaho pa ako dito so ang ginawa ko inextend ko ng June so by June siya," said Pacquiao.
The senator is confident that he will have enough time to train, while fulfilling his legislative responsibilities.
"Training, trabaho nagagawa naman natin yun, saka break naman nun."
Last week, Pacquiao rejected an offer to fight on the undercard of the Jeff Horn-Terence Crawford fight in the US in April.
Pacquiao has not scored a knockout win in the last 8 years and lost his WBO welterweight title to Australian Horn via an unanimous decision in July 2017.
The ageing boxer is adamant in continuing his boxing career while being a senator despite advices for him to retire for good based on his performance against Horn.
