Manny Pacquiao will reportedly face Jessie Vargas next

According to Manny Pacquiao’s close advisor Michael Koncz, Pacquiao will return on November 5th against Jessie Vargas. Promoter Bob Arum has mentioned that he has an August 10th meeting scheduled with Pacquiao, but according to Koncz that meeting will just be about the finances of the fight, not to determine who Pacquiao will face next.

Although many fans would’ve preferred to see Pacquiao take on Terence Crawford next, Koncz says that he and Pacquaio feel uncomfortable with Crawford’s style, leading them to take on Vargas instead.

“I don’t like Crawford’s style. I don’t believe it’s a style that suits Manny,” Koncz said.

Truthfully speaking, this news isn’t all that surprising. Even Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach has gone on record saying he wouldn’t agree with Pacquiao taking on Terence Crawford next after the performance he put on against Viktor Postol just recently. And really it’s not hard to see why they’d feel this way. Crawford’s height and reach advantages combined with the perpetual lateral movement he displayed against Postol would be a stylistic nightmare for Pacquiao — with even  Freddie Roach comparing Crawford to a young Floyd Mayweather.

So instead Pacquiao has elected to take on Jessie Vargas – but one has to wonder how much fanfare there will be for such a fight. Vargas is certainly a good fighter, but he doesn’t have much of a fan following and will certainly open as a massive underdog in this one. And considering Pacquiao’s dwindling PPV sales, this isn’t the kind of fight that’ll restoke interest in his fading career.