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Pacquiao won't be sparring with Rigo

A few notes from around the boxing world:

• One of the big Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao fight rumors to spread like crazy on social media in recent days, based on unsubstantiated reports, was that Pacquiao would be sparring with junior featherweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux to get ready for the fight. It is not true, according to trainer Freddie Roach, who picks the sparring partners.

Rigondeaux as a sparring partner for Pacquiao makes no sense, anyway, because although he is great defensively and fast like Mayweather, he is also about 20 pounds lighter than Pacquiao and left-handed. Pacquiao, who will begin sparring for the fight on Tuesday, has two sparring partners in camp at Roach’s Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, California, to begin with (with more coming). They are Kenneth Simms Jr. (5-0, 2 KOs) and Rashidi Ellis (14-0, 11 KOs).

• Almost as soon as former junior lightweight titlist Rances Barthelemy (21-0, 12 KOs), who recently gave up his 130-pound crown to move up to lightweight, was added to the March 26 on ESPN2’s “Friday Night Fights” card in Hialeah, Florida, he was removed from the show over the weekend because the network and promoter could not agree on an acceptable opponent. According to promoter Warriors Boxing, Barthelemy will move to another card to be determined. The March 26 card is headlined a welterweight fight between Breidis Prescott (27-6, 20 KOs) and Fredrick Lawson (23-0, 20 KOs).

• Emanuel Lopez (17-4-1, 6 KOs), 25, of Mexico, will face Carlos Padilla (15-1-1, 9 KOs), 25, of Colombia, for an organization’s vacant interim junior lightweight belt Saturday night (UniMas, 11 p.m. ET/PT) in Tapachula, Mexico, Lopez’s hometown, according to Zanfer Promotions. The legit titleholder is Japan’s Takashi Uchiyama (22-0-1, 18 KOs).