Future Hall of Fame boxer Manny Pacquiao will come out of
retirement to fight again, likely in late October or early
November, according to his promoter Bob Arum, who said Tuesday
night that Pacquiao is ready to put the gloves on again.
It will be a pay-per-view fight, Arum told USA
TODAY Sports Tuesday night. He said he is scrambling to find
a venue, and hopefully it will be the MGM
Grand or one of the MGM Grand properties,
which includes the Mandalay Bay Events Center or the new T-Mobile
Arena.
“Right now we’re scrambling around trying to get a location for
the fight,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to do it. Everybody’s
helping and if we get a location, Manny has permission to go ahead
with the fight.”
The story was first reported in the U.S. by ESPN.com.
On Tuesday night on his Twitter account, Pacquiao released this
statement, denying not that a fight is in the works, but that
preparation for the fight would require him to take a leave of
absence from the Senate:
Pacquiao (58-6-2, 38 KOs)) announced his retirement after his
April 9 victory against Timothy Bradley at the MGM Grand. At the time, he was running for the Senate in
the Philippines, and said he wanted to concentrate on his Senate
duties if he was elected and wanted to see what it was like to be
retired.
Apparently he found it not completely to his liking. A month
later, Pacquiao, 37, a two-term congressman, was elected to the
Senate.
“Manny has always wanted to continue fighting if he could clear
it with his duties in the Senate,” Arum said. “And he has been told
he cannot fight on October 15th. But he was cleared to fight either
on the 29th of October or the 5th of November.
“We’re trying to clear a building in Las Vegas. They’re working
hard on that in the MGM and we’ll see what
we’ll see.”
Michael Koncz, Pacquiao’s advisor, reached by phone, told
USA TODAY Sports that the retired fighter
does want to fight again and is “working hand in hand with the
Senate president to make sure it doesn’t interfere with his duties
and obligations. First and foremost, he’s committed to fulfilling
his senatorial obligations.
“But he misses the sport, he misses entertaining people and he
misses the people that are associated with boxing that we deal with
when we fight.
“I just spoke to him the other day. I’ve been with Manny a long
time, and I don’t say anything that I’m not authorized to say. But
he does want to come back and we will come back.”
Koncz said it will likely be early November, not late October
for the comeback fight. Pacquiao said in his statement he would
train the entire time in the Philippines, but Arum said he expects
the last two weeks of training camp to be held in the United
States.
If the fight happens, Arum, the Hall of Fame chairman of Top
Rank Promotions, said Pacquiao’s opponent will not be Adrien
Broner, who has been rumored to be the guy. Apparently his asking
price is too high.
“First, we have to get the building, then it will be either
Danny Garcia, or the winner of (Terence) Crawford-(Viktor) Postol
(July 23rd fight at the MGM Grand), or Jessie
Vargas.”
“Hopefully it’s going to happen,” Arum said. “Do I know for
sure? No.”