Pacquiao – Matthysse set for July 14

Manny Pacquiao will take on WBA Welterweight champion Lucas Matthysse on July 14th in Malaysia, according to Dan Rafael of espn.com.

“Signed, sealed, and delivered: Proud to officially announce that WBA welterweight world champion Lucas Matthysse will put his title on the line against Manny Pacquiao in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Saturday night July 14 (U.S. time),” Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya, who promotes Matthysse, wrote on his social media.

Pacquiao will go into the fight without his longtime trainer, International Boxing Hall of Famer Freddie Roach, overseeing his camp or corner. Koncz said Pacquiao has replaced Roach with Buboy Fernandez, Pacquiao’s lifelong friend and the career-long assistant trainer who has been with him for every fight.

“That’s Manny’s decision. Manny has told me Buboy will be handling the training on this fight,” Koncz said. “What’s important to Manny is that he has one voice to listen to in the corner that he trusts, and I guess that’s Buboy for this fight.”

Asked about the reason Pacquiao decided to make a change — without notifying Roach — Koncz said, “There was some concerns Manny had in the last fight and some statements Freddie made to the media that Manny wasn’t very pleased about.”

“We are very pleased and privileged that ESPN will be part of this fight because of the tremendous viewing audience we had for the Australian fight,” Koncz said.

“We’re working together on this fight,” Koncz said. “They’ve done good for us for a long time, and we’ve done good for them for a long time. So we’re working with them on this fight. We don’t have any disputes with Top Rank. Hopefully, this fight with Matthysse is a big success and Manny is victorious, and then we can see if we can do a fight with [Vasiliy] Lomachenko with Top Rank in the fall.”

“[Arum] is invited [to the fight], and there’s no problem,” Pacquiao recently told reporters in the Philippines. “I think after my fight with Matthysse, we will talk regarding the possible Pacquiao-Lomachenko fight in the future. That is a good fight because he is a champion, and I’ll be challenged to become a champion again. At the same time, I don’t want the people to say that [the fight with Matthysse is] just a tune-up fight.”

“We had to schedule this fight so the senate wasn’t in session and wouldn’t interfere with Manny’s training,” Koncz said.