_3.jpg)
WBA, IBF junior welterweight champion Josh Taylor regards Manny Pacquiao as his dream match opponent.
Pacquiao, an eight division world champion, currently holds the WBA world title at the welterweight limit of 147-pounds.
Both boxers are waiting to receive new dates, after having their returns pushed back due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Taylor is going to face his mandatory challenger, undefeated and untested Apinun Khongsong of Thailand.
While Taylor wants to unify the entire division, a Pacquiao fight would be tempting enough to make him move up in weight.
“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.”
But before he can think about Pacquiao, or even a full unification with WBC, WBO world champion Jose Ramirez, Taylor must make good on his mandatory obligation – as the IBF would strip him otherwise.
“I’ve got to do my mandatory defence,” said Taylor, who won the World Boxing Super Series tournament last year when he defeated Regis Prograis.
“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. I wouldn’t mind going to Vegas, but my ideal venue would be in New York, Madison Square Garden, or the Barclays Center in New York.
“More Brits over there, more Scots over there. A big Scottish population over there as well, so yeah, that would be a perfect location for me, would be New York, or somewhere on the east coast.”