BILLY Dib can make Australian boxing history by winning the same world championship that fuelled the careers of both Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.
Dib, 29, faces Japan’s world champ Takashi Miura for the WBC super-featherweight (59kg) title in Tokyo on Friday night in a bout being televised live on Channel 9 after the Anzac rugby league Test match.
He says the brilliance of his old boss Mayweather and the chance to capture a title that eluded Aussie greats Jeff Fenech and Lionel Rose will propel him to an upset against the heavy-hitting Japanese southpaw.
Mayweather, who has promoted some of Dib’s recent fights in America, won the same WBC title in 1998 from American Genaro Hernandez, who had taken it from the mighty Azumah Nelson, of Ghana.
Nelson had retained the title in two fights with Jeff Fenech, their 1992 rematch attracting 38,000 fans to Melbourne’s Princes Park for the biggest live crowd in Australian boxing history.
The WBC championship was Mayweather’s first on a long and lucrative championship road that leads him to Sunday’s world welterweight (67kg) title fight with Pacquiao in Las Vegas that will be the highest grossing boxing match of all time.
It will ensure Mayweather retains his long-term status as the highest paid athlete in the world.
In 2008 Pacquiao won the same WBC 59kg title by outpointing his arch foe Juan Manuel Marquez, a Mexican who has victories over Queenslanders Michael Katsidis and Robbie Peden.
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Any of you watching?
Dib, 29, faces Japan’s world champ Takashi Miura for the WBC super-featherweight (59kg) title in Tokyo on Friday night in a bout being televised live on Channel 9 after the Anzac rugby league Test match.
He says the brilliance of his old boss Mayweather and the chance to capture a title that eluded Aussie greats Jeff Fenech and Lionel Rose will propel him to an upset against the heavy-hitting Japanese southpaw.
Mayweather, who has promoted some of Dib’s recent fights in America, won the same WBC title in 1998 from American Genaro Hernandez, who had taken it from the mighty Azumah Nelson, of Ghana.
Nelson had retained the title in two fights with Jeff Fenech, their 1992 rematch attracting 38,000 fans to Melbourne’s Princes Park for the biggest live crowd in Australian boxing history.
The WBC championship was Mayweather’s first on a long and lucrative championship road that leads him to Sunday’s world welterweight (67kg) title fight with Pacquiao in Las Vegas that will be the highest grossing boxing match of all time.
It will ensure Mayweather retains his long-term status as the highest paid athlete in the world.
In 2008 Pacquiao won the same WBC 59kg title by outpointing his arch foe Juan Manuel Marquez, a Mexican who has victories over Queenslanders Michael Katsidis and Robbie Peden.
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Any of you watching?
