A British boxer, who walked unrecognised through the streets of London last week, now stands between the legendary Manny Pacquiao and the biggest purse in ring history.
Pacquiao has been offered a mind-boggling £40million to fight Mexican prodigy Saul Alvarez next spring — but that fortune will be blown away if Sheffield battler Ryan Rhodes, 34, can pull off a major upset in Guadalajara, Mexico, on Saturday week.
Rhodes is in Mexico as the mandatory challenger for the world light-middleweight title which Alvarez won by overwhelming Matthew Hatton, albeit travelling as a heavy underdog.
Certainly, the world’s richest man expects a comfortable victory for his young Mexican compatriot, who is nicknamed Canelo because of his unusual red hair.
Carlos Slim
, the telecommunications mogul worth in excess of $60 billion, is planning his mega-fight between Pacqauio and Alvarez in front of a 95,000 crowd in Mexico City’s Aztec Stadium. He has guaranteed his offer to Pacquaio, a recently elected Congressman in Manilla, by lodging it with a powerful politician and businessman there, Governor Luis Chavit Singson. Slim is a boxing fanatic and funds pensions for many retired heroes of the Mexican ring.
Bob Arum, promoter of the Filipino idol who is now generally regarded as the greatest pound-for-pound fighter in the world, is treating Slim’s offer more seriously than an even higher bid for Pacquaio to box in Singapore.
A consortium of Far Eastern tycoons would pay Pacquaio and Floyd Mayweather Jnr $75 million each to face each other in the fight the world most wants to see – but therein lies the problem.
Arum explains: ‘When Floyd doesn’t even appear to be considering this much money, it tells me that he really does not want to fight Manny. So we are looking at Alvarez in Mexico.’
So is Rhodes, as early as Saturday week.
The 34-year-old European and twice British champion passed through London en route from Sheffield to Alvarez’s home city of Guadalajara. Although he did so unnoticed, he was full of belief in his potential for knocking out the new poster boy of Mexican boxing.
While admiring of the way Hitman Ricky Hatton’s brother went the torrid distance with Alvarez, he said: ‘The difference is that I am bigger puncher than Matthew. This lad is a good offensive fighter but he is easy to hit and when I land it will have an impact on him I don’t think he will have felt before.’
Rhodes failed in his only previous world title challenge, against Otis Grant all of 13 years ago. However, like the other three defeats in his career, that came when he moved up to middleweight and he adds: ‘I’m a much more dangerous puncher at light-middle.’
The odds are heavily against Rhodes, especially since he travelled too late to fully acclimatise to the 5,200 feet altitude in Guadalajara.
But if one of those punches proves concussive, not even the wealthiest man in the world will be able to put together again the richest fight of all time.
Source: dailymail.co.uk
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