By JEREMY LAST
Israeli boxing sensation Yuri Foreman's chance of fighting world pound for pound champion Manny Pacquiao was ended on Thursday after Pacquiao's camp rejected Foreman as a potential opponent to replace Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Foreman, the 29-year-old who won the WBA super welterweight title in November, is represented by Pacquiao's promoter Bob Arum and had been considered a potential opponent for the March 13 slot vacated when negotiations between Pacquiao and Mayweather broke down on Wednesday.
The LA Times reported that Pacquiao's US business manager Michael Koncz said, "Manny's concerned about Foreman's height. We'll go through the entire [welterweight and junior welterweight] categories and see what we can come up with."
However, the Israeli, who lived in Haifa from the ages of 10 to 19 and now resides in New York, was still proud to have been turned down.
"It's a real honor the greatest pound-for-pound fighter in the world doesn't want to fight me," Foreman said. "Aside from winning the world title, this is the greatest compliment I've gotten in boxing."
"We would have liked [Pacquiao] but it didn't work out," Foreman spokesman Dovid Efune told The Jerusalem Post. "But we know that everything that God does has a purpose."
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