APPARENTLY or indirectly as a result of Manny Pacquiao’s lackluster showing in a boxing exhibition match in Japan last July, reigning American World Boxing Council welterweight Mario Barrios has opted to defend his crown against Mexican Abel Ramos on Nov. 15 at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

The Barrios-Ramos world championship match will be on the undercard of the featured bout between former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson and popular vlogger turned boxer Jake Paul, according to World Boxing News writer Phil Jay in a story posted on the website Tuesday (early Wednesday morning in Manila).

“Manny Pacquiao missed a WBC welterweight title shot after Mario Barrios agreed to face Abel Ramos on November 15. The Filipino legend, 45, was in talks with Barrios and his team about a record-breaking attempt at the green and gold belt…and the event seemed highly likely at one point,” Jay wrote.

But “the last few weeks proved challenging to navigate as a date and venue could not be secured. Therefore, Barrios took an offer from Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions to appear on the Mike Tyson undercard in Texas,” the story noted.

This was a big letdown for Pacquiao, who is keen on returning to the ring after losing his World Boxing Association super welterweight crown by unanimous decision to crafty counter-punching Cuban Yordenis Ugas on Aug. 21, 2021 at the T-Mobil Arena in Las Vegas.

The former Filipino eight-division world champion did not do himself any favors after his sub-par outing against young Japanese kickboxing king Rukiya Anpo in an exhibition boxing match last July 28 in front of a packed crowd at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. The bout was declared a draw.

Meanwhile, World Boxing, the new global amateur boxing body that includes the Philippines, has scheduled its inaugural championships for elite men and women from Sept. 4 to 14 at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool, England, the website boxingscene.com reported yesterday (Tuesday in the US).

“The championships will take place between September 4 and September 14 at the M&S Bank Arena, marking the first Elite-level global championships hosted by World Boxing, the new International Federation which has been set up to ensure that boxing remains an Olympic sport,” the report said in a statement released by the WB.

The report said that action will be in 10 weight divisions for both men and women.

“Categories will be finalized in the new edition of World Boxing’s Competition Rules, which will be published following its forthcoming Congress in November,” it added.

A breakaway group from the scandal-tainted International Boxing Association, World Boxing “was launched in April 2023 and aims to ensure that boxing remains at the heart of the Olympic movement.

Boxing has been dropped from the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, but the founding Olympic sport could still be reinstated once the WB is able to woo majority of boxing federations worldwide and take over the qualifying process that the IOC held in the Tokyo and Paris editions of the Olympiad.