According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, Pound for Pound king Manny Pacquiao’s next bout will be “pushed back” to May 7th instead of April 16th and the opponent for that bout will be announced within days.
“We had a meeting [Monday] night after dinner in my suite and went over everything and he absorbed it all, and we will talk further on Friday when I get to [Pacquiao’s hometown] General Santos City and see him again,” promoter Bob Arum said. “Friday is his birthday and he’s going to tell me Friday. We went over all the details and talked about it for about an hour.”
“Manny preferred May 7 because his congressional schedule is such that he preferred an early May date so the congress is definitely not in session,” Arum said.
“We’re going on May 7 and we reserved that date with all of the pay-per-view industry,” he said.
“The pay-per-view industry was very, very adamant about wanting Manny to go in May because they felt going in April there were too many pay-per-view events with WrestleMania and a UFC. While they may not be directly competitive for viewers, they are when it comes to the ad space on cable systems and the [satellite] dishes.”
We only can go essentially in a non-state tax state,” Arum said.
“Manny said he was going to work really hard and that he would train for four full weeks in the United States and maybe even five,” Arum said. “He’ll be in the U.S. longer this time, which is good for him and good for the promotion.”
Pacquiao will choose from Shane Mosley, Andre Berto and a third fight with Juan Manuel Marquez
“But the problem with Juan Manuel Marquez is the number he wants is so damn high and he hasn’t moved off it, and that’s preventing the Marquez fight,” Arum said. “We know what he got when he fought [Floyd] Mayweather and we feel that asking for double what he got for the Mayweather fight after he lost to Mayweather is a little bit much. Maybe he doesn’t feel that way.”
As for Berto, Arum said his offer was “the most reasonable. He came in below everybody and he would be an excellent, excellent opponent. But his promoter [Lou DiBella] got to get out and promote him so he has a persona and that if we put him in with Pacquiao people don’t say, ‘Who the hell is that?’ ”
Mosley is the most well-known of the three, but has shown significant signs that he is near the end.
“He’s the guy everybody knows, the pay-per-view guys, the casinos, the foreign television. Sugar Shane resonates,” Arum said. “The downside is he has two bad performances, but he’s still Sugar Shane. With Shane, there’s room to make an adjustment, a little tweak here or there, and I’m sure we could get it done.”
Photo by Chris Farina / Top Rank
