Quetta likely to host ace Pakistan boxer Waseem's world title fight next April

A delegation of Manny Pacquiao Promotion is expected to come to Pakistan to pave way for the country’s top professional boxer Mohammad Waseem’s world title fight, which is expected to be hosted by Pakistan in the next few months.

Sources close to Waseem confided in Nukta that the promotion’s top officials will soon visit Pakistan.

Sources said that the delegation will meet the state authorities and DHA Quetta which will be the key in the entire enterprise. The world title fight will be held in April in Quetta.

Waseem in a recent interview with Nukta had also revealed that they planned to hold his world title fight in Quetta where craze for boxing is huge.

“Under Manny Pacquiao I will play big fights. I have been in communication with my promotion relating to our future plans. I am also thankful to DHA Quetta as it has told us to hold an international event in Quetta and they will back us. We are in talks with them and we want to bring in world title bout to Pakistan,” Waseem had told Nukta a few days ago in a detailed interview.

“Most probably it will be held in Quetta as I belong to Quetta and we want to hold international event in front of the big crowd. Effort will be made to bring in boxers from across the world. It will be a big message for the youngsters.”

Historic occasion

This would be a historic occasion as it would be the first world title fight which Pakistan will host.

Waseem had previously fought his ranking fight against Jeny Boy Boca of the Philippines in Lahore in December 2020, beating his opponent with an enviable ease.

Waseem is a former three-time WBC world silver flyweight champion. He has played 15 fights in his pro career, winning 13. He just lost two fights and that too were the world title bouts against South Africa’s Moruti Mthalane and Sunny Edwards of England.

After playing his last ranking fight in Malta recently where he downed a Georgian fighter on his return to the international circuit after a lapse of two and a half years Waseem entered into an agreement with Manny Pacquiao, one of the best promotions of the world being run by the world’s destructive boxer Manny Pacquiao.

Pacquiao is regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time. The former Philippines senator and businessman is the only eight-division world champion in the history of boxing. He has won 12 major world titles.

Sources said that Waseem’s coach Danny Vaughn will also be part of the delegation which will tour Pakistan.

Vaughn has been associated with Waseem since long when he first signed an agreement with the former world’s major boxers’ managers MTK Global. Under Vaughn Waseem also played the world title fight against Sunny Edwards of England in Dubai and he was also with him in Malta recently.

Waseem has rendered meritorious services for Pakistan also as an amateur fighter. His decade-long amateur career fetched several medals for the country. The 2014 was the golden year for Waseem as an amateur fighter when he lifted silver in the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games and just after a few months he won bronze in the Incheon Asian Games. It was a medal which Pakistan lifted after 12 years in the continental event.

Waseem’s switching over to professional boxing in 2015 created a big vacuum in Pakistan’s boxing which is yet to be plugged.