By Ronnie Nathanielsz

Rex “Wakee” Salud, a close friend and confidant of eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao, says he will try to convince Pacquiao to promote a double world championship in Manila featuring Jerwin Ancajas vs. IBF super flyweight champion McJoe Arroyo and Marlon Tapales challenging WBO bantamweight champion Pungluang Sor Singyu.

Salud, who is a sponsor at the wedding of Manny’s youngest brother in Davao City, said he learned that Pacquiao wants to promote the fight of the promising southpaw Ancajas who will face Arroyo after well-known international promoter and matchmaker Sampson Lewkowicz won the purse bid to stage the fight in Manila. Salud hopes to convince Pacquiao to add on the WBO title fight in order to make it a championship double.

The 24 year old Ancajas has an impressive record of 24-1-1 with 16 knockouts and is coming off run of 11 stoppages.

In his last fight Ancajas, capped his amazing run with a 1st round knockout of Paul Apolinario in a scheduled ten round bout last November 13 after a 9th round KO of Juan Purisima in another scheduled ten rounder on May 30, 2015.

His victories came after a ten round majority decision loss to tough Mark Anthony Geraldo who had previously dropped a twelve round title eliminator on points to McJoe Arroyo who went on to win the vacant title in a controversial 10th round technical decision over a badly cut, previously unbeaten King Arthur Villanueva .

Trainer Nonoy Neri told us that Ancajas has been training for a long time since he was supposed to fight Arroyo in Puerto Rico, but now the fight will be held in Manila.

Ancajas is looking forward to the title shot and has been ripping punches in sparring against Geraldo and has looked good. Neri said Arroyo “has no power and keeps running” prompting Ancajas to reply “I will disrupt his style.”

Neri said Ancajas is “a smart fighter and is very confident.”

Salud told The Standard/BoxingScene.com that Tapales has been training for the past one month under former boxer  Fernando Ocon and said “the style of Pungluang suits Tapales” because the Thai champion is aggressive and comes forward.

Salud predicted it should be a terrific fight and hopes he can convince Pacquiao to stage a championship doubleheader.

He also indicated he is waiting for WBO president Francisco “Paco” Valcarcel to inform him when they could start negotiations and that it would “depend on the purse Pungluang asks for, otherwise we will go to a purse bid if we can’t agree.”

Pungluang’s manager, the charming Pariyakorn Ratanasuban, said after the Pabustan fight - “definitely we will bid to host the fight in Thailand.” She conceded that Pungluang “still has some weaknesses and he needs to train a lot before fighting Tapales.”