Pac is Back! Manny Pacquiao's next fight is against........Yuri Foreman?

(Yuri looks about as excited as the rest of the world about this potential fight)

Yes boxing fans, the fight everyone has been waiting for may be upon us! The pound-for-pound #1 fighter in the world, Manny Pacquiao (50-3-2, 38 KO), will look to solidify his status as an all time great in March against Floyd Maywe.....wait, what? He's not fighting Mayweather? He's fighting Yuri Foreman?

What?

According to Pacquiao's highly vocal trainer Freddy Roach in an interview with BoxingScene.com, negotiations with Floyd Mayweather have not been going smoothly (shocking, I know) and he's tossing around the idea of his fighter moving up in weight again to challenge for the 154-pound title. Standing between the "Pacman" and his record setting 8th title in different weight classes would be newly crowned WBA junior middleweight champ, Yuri Foreman (28-0, 8 KO). Foreman won the title on the undercard of the Pacquiao-Cotto card by defeating Daniel Santos by decision. Excited yet? No, neither are the guys at Bad Left Hook:

"Pacquiao likely beats Foreman, even giving up a lot of size. He's too fast, Foreman doesn't hit hard, and Manny's just a much, much better fighter. And Pacquiao-Foreman is really a bit of a sham. It's an admitted stab at faux "history" being made. They know Foreman is the exact right matchup.

After all, the fight would be contested for a 154-pound title. How low do you think they'll try to get a catchweight? Foreman has dipped as low as 149 pounds in his career, but by the time this fight rolled around, that will have been almost eight years in the past. In the last three years he hasn't gone below 153 1/2 pounds on the scales.

If they allow it at the full 154-pound weight, they're essentially saying clearly, "This guy can't beat us, and we know it." Cotto had to get down to 145. Manny has never weighed in over 144 for any fight, and by all accounts he walks around at about 150-155 pounds."

That pretty much sums it up. Not to say that Foreman isn't a good fighter, but this fight is basically the definition of "tune up fight". This is pretty much a ploy to get Pacquiao another title and use his new record for division titles to build even more hype for a fight against Mayweather. If what Roach says is true, which isn't a guarantee, and Floyd is stalling until September for the fight against his fighter, there are more interesting fights for Pacquiao other than gift wrapping a history making fight. The idea has been tossed out that if Pacquiao does end up fighting Foreman, barring Andre Berto pulling the upset against Shane Mosley, Mayweather would take on Mosley as his "tune up" for Pacquiao. Again, not to pile on Foreman, but Mosley is a much bigger threat to Mayweather than he is to Pacquiao. With only 8 career knockouts, it's a pretty safe bet that he will bring nothing to the table that should be able to stifle "Pacman".

Let no one say I didn't see this coming. I posted in my live chat last week that the more people talk about Pacquiao-Mayweather as an inevitability, the more I think this fight isn't going to happen this year, if ever. If the Pacquiao-Foreman fight goes forward, there is going to be a lot of talk about Pacquiao trying to pad his win-loss record, Mayweather ducking the fight, and the overall illegitimacy of titles in boxing. I can't say I would blame the pundits if they called out boxing on legitimacy of their titles, because it's clear that getting Pacquiao another belt for his trophy case is the only reason this fight is discussed. More details if they emerge......

p.s. Roy Jones Jr.-Danny Green and Bernard Hopkins-Enrique Ornelas will be broadcast on Versus this Wednesday. If both RJJ and Hopkins win, expect a rematch to be made that will involve a massive amount of hilarious trash talk, leading up to a horribly lackluster fight.

***UPDATE*** Bad Left Hook has posted a rumor that Bob Arum may attempt to get Floyd Mayweather a fight in the UK against Matthew Hatton, Ricky's brother. So much for Mayweather taking a more challenging tune up fight than Pacquiao. Matthew Hatton's a decent fighter, but not even in the same universe as Mayweather. The legality of that fight should be questioned, because it would be borderline assault.