Josh Taylor says Pacquiao is a dream matchup

IBF and WBA Super Lightweight Champion Josh Taylor was asked about his dream matchup opponent, and the name that popped up was Manny Pacquiao.

Speaking with Sky Sports, Taylor, if given a chance to get in the ring with the future Hall of Famer, would be something he’d love to get an opportunity to move up in weight for.

“I would love to fight him,” Taylor told Sky Sports. “He is my hero, so it would be good to share a ring with him, that would be awesome.

“It would be good to fight him. That would be a dream come true, to share a ring with Manny Pacquiao,” Taylor said.

While Taylor-Pacquiao is a match I don’t think we’ll ever see come to fruition, one glaring reason is that Taylor has mandatories that would interfere with this.

“I’ve got to do my mandatory defense,” said Taylor, when asked whether he could even face Ramirez instead of IBF mandatory challenger Apinun Khongsong.

Khongsong was the slated opponent for Taylor when he was to make his Top Rank debut in May 2020 before taking on the possibility of a unification bout for all the belts at 140 against Jose Ramirez. That bout was anticipated to take place near the end of 2020, but due to the pandemic is more than likely pushed back to some point into 2021 should both Taylor and Ramirez were victorious.

“I think the IBF are pretty strict with their mandatories and stuff, and I’m sure Ramirez has to do his mandatory as well. I think we both have to get them out of the way first and then go for the fight,” Taylor said.

Ramirez has a mandatory bout against Viktor Postal that has been halted by the pandemic not only originally in China but also on the reschedule in his native area of Fresno, California.