Arum to let Pacquiao pick between Crawford and Lomachenko

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has Manny Pacquiao (59-7-2, 38 KOs) scheduled to take on Mike Alvarado (38-4, 26 KOs) on the undercard of an April 14th ESPN show, headlined by Terence Crawford vs Jeff Horn for Horn’s WBO title.

And while Pacquiao hasn’t scored a stoppage win in nearly 10 full years (the last coming against Miguel Cotto in 2009), if he can’t get one against a far-past-it Alvarado — in a dreadfully matched fight — well then, Pac-Man really has nothing left to offer.

Therefore almost all parties involved are looking ahead to Pacquiao’s next outing, expected to happen this fall, and Arum tells RingTV that it will ‘absolutely’ come against either Crawford or Vasyl Lomachenko, with him letting Pacquiao make the call.

“That’s going to be up to Mr. Pacquiao,” Arum said. “I’m going to be like Switzerland having both of these guys. Both can make good money fighting Pacquiao and I’m going to let Manny, assuming everything works out in April, make the decision.”

Considering that Pacquiao’s handlers have long acknowledged that they don’t believe Crawford is a good fight for Pacquiao at this stage of his career, one could probably hedge their bets that Lomachenko would be the logical choice.

Lomachenko is still arguably the best fighter in the world right now, but he embodies a smaller opponent who isn’t really a devastating puncher, so that fight probably gives Pacquiao the better shot to win. But first Pacquiao will have to have his way with Alvarado this April.