A unification match with two of the three contenders is possible for late this year provided Pacquiao beats Horn in their title fight at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Australia.
The three possible opponents include, Terence Crawford, Keith Thurman and Errol Spence. They all have called out Pacquiao for a possible unification fight.
Except for Crawford, who won a referee technical decision over Felix Diaz on May 20 at the Madison Square Garden in New York, the two others are in for a unification match.
“Pacquiao. That’s the only fight out there we’re really looking for,” Crawford said after his victory over Diaz.
Crawford is a light welterweight titlist while Thurman and Spence are world welterweight champions. Pacquiao holds the WBO welterweight title while Thurman wears the WBA and WBC welterweight belts. Spence has just won the IBF Welterweight title from Kell Brook.
A victory over Thurman will give Pacquiao two more belts from the sanctioning bodies in the welterweight division. Spence can only part with his IBF belt in a unification bout.
“I think it’s kind of ironic. You know what I mean?,” he said. “I’m the only welterweight in the world that holds two world titles, and he’s still ranked above me. So at the end of the day, we want that Pac-Man fight,” Thurman added.
In calling out Pacquiao, Spence said he did to Chris Algieri what Pacquao and Amir Khan failed to do.
“I proved that I’m there with Keith Thurman and Amir Khan and Shawn Porter and Manny Pacquiao. I put on a performance that Manny Pacquiao didn’t do and Amir Khan didn’t do. They didn’t stop Chris Algieri.”
Crawford cannot put his light welterweight titles on the line as he is expected to move up to the 147 weight limit to face Pacquiao unless the fighting senator agrees to face him at 140 pounds.
Of the three, Crawford has the edge to bag the Pacquiao fight because Arum promotes both of them.
