Manny Pacquiao, second chances and new boxing brain Paul Butler look for upset win in world championship shot

Three-weight world champion John Riel Casimero has stopped six of his last seven opponents, but Paul Butler said he will not face Manny Pacquiao next on Saturday.

WBO world bantamweight champion Casimero (31-4, 21 KOs) from the Philippines is like boxing legend Pacquiao, who announced his retirement earlier this year after winning world titles in eight weight divisions. record.

Pacquiao’s advertising agency recently promoted Casimero, who was ranked third by ESPN with £118 after he became a three-place world champion by knocking out Zolani Tete in three rounds in September. 11/2019.

But the 32-year-old, from Ormoc City, engaged in a second title defense against a 40-year-old Cuban Guillermo Rigondeaux in his final game in August. Casimero won the decisive match against former champion Rigondeaux, now 41, and Butler was far from feeling affected by the task ahead at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai.

“I wouldn’t go as far as to say Casimero is the next Manny Pacquiao or whatever, but he hit really hard and I know I’m going against it, I have to do my best to beat him,” Butler said. with ESPN.

“He’s a world champion so he’s a good kid, but I believe everything went right for me in training and if I get the game planned out overnight, I can do it.

“I’ve known about this fight for a while now and I had a great training camp. I signed with MTK and if it weren’t for it I probably wouldn’t have boxed until now. I wouldn’t be. play 10 rounds in June and that’s really important.

“I won’t read too much into the fight with Rigo… Sometimes Rigo lets him down by perhaps not doing anything.”

Butler (33-2, 15 KOs), 33, from Merseyside, England, fought back for the title race after he slipped – and so lost his chance to challenge for the world title – when he faced Emmanuel Rodriguez for the IBF vacancy in May 2018. Butler was knocked down twice in the first round and continued to lose points.

Butler said: “Rodriguez is a tough guy, I had four weeks notice for that match, which nobody really knew about, because the advertiser couldn’t put it on any of the bills. is different”.

“I had a chance to be able to box in the World Boxing Super Series, so I had to take almost two breaks in four weeks to fight Rodriguez. I lost the week and then I had one. the first match was terrible, the round, and I just followed the match after that. I was told that the winner of the match against Rodriguez would go on to the World Boxing Super Series, so we had to do it.

“But this fight was different, my preparation was noticed.”

Casimero will love to face WBC champion Nonito Donaire (41-6, 27 KOs), 39, who was born in the Philippines but moved to California at the age of 11, and WBA-IBF king Naoya Inoue (21-0, 18 KOs). Donaire faces Filipino Reymart Gaballo in Carson, California, also on Saturday while Inoue – number 1 in the division and also number 3 in ESPN’s pound-for-pound rankings – defends his belt against Aran Dipaen of Thailand in his home country of Japan on Tuesday.

While Casimero may feel overwhelmed by the occasion, Butler said that winning another world title would beat his record in 2014 when he won the IBF bantamweight title, after which he He gave up without making any excuses.

“It would have been more meaningful to me this time if I had won because of the hard work I had to put in and the setbacks I went through like Rodriguez, which I invested in because of me. feel bound,” Butler said.

“This is where I can put all of that in bed.

“Back then, when I won the world championship [against Stuey Hall in 2014] and fight Zolani Tete [Butler lost in the eighth round for the world junior bantamweight title in 2015], I wasted a lot of photos. I don’t have the boxing brain I have now, which I have since working with [trainer] Joe Gallagher.

“I now coach with amateurs myself and that has helped me to study the boxer more and understand the match a little better. Looking back, a lot of the shots that I threw were not in fact not. getting injured all the time. Now I’m a more educated boxer.”