Kuala Lumpur will remain as the venue of the scheduled 12-rounder, according to Pacquiao, citing the Muslim festival of Ramadan (May 16 to June 14) as a reason for scrapping the June 24 original date.
With the two-week postponement, the planned April 4 kickoff press conference will now take place April 11.
Matthysse and his promoter, Oscar DeLa Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions, are arriving to drumbeat the event.
(Pacquiao v Matthysse is for the WBA ‘Regular’ title as full champion is Keith Thurman)
By the time Pacquiao attempts to win Matthysse’s WBA 147-lb title, he would be inactive for over a year since his last outing took place on July 2, 2017, in Brisbane, Australia.
Credit: Manila Bulletin
Meanwhile, IBF super-flyweight king Jerwin Ancajas ran into mandatory challenger Jonas Sultan during Sunday night’s Elorde Boxing Awards at the Okada Manila.
But they behaved well when they were formally introduced as they exchanged pleasantries, shook hands and narrated the time when they sent messages on social media.
Ancajas and Sultan have been tabbed to fight each other in late-May or early-June in the US.
Top Rank wants to stage the event, the first all-Filipino world title fight in almost a century, in the San Francisco Bay Area.
“Okay naman kaming dalawa (I’m okay),” said Ancajas, stressing that he and Sultan are out to come out fighting for the sake of fight fans.
“Walang namang personalan (It’s nothing personal),” said Sultan, who earned his status as mandatory challenger after upsetting ex-world champion John Riel Casimero.
Courtesy of Nick Giongco, Manila Bulletin. Follow Nick on Twitter @NickSpeaks
