Boxing Manny Pacquiao News

Top Rank chief Bob Arum met with Manny Pacquiao just before the Hall of Fame promoter took a Las Vegas-bound flight Saturday afternoon and made a stunning revelation, stemming probably from a bold declaration by Floyd Mayweather Jr. that went viral on the Internet.

“Don’t say that,” Arum told the Bulletin when asked whether Mayweather is out of the picture as a potential opponent for late-May or early-June in Las Vegas.

Arum said he briefly met with Pacquiao “for about 30 minutes and got everything done,” stressing that the 33-year-old Pacquiao has made his intentions clear to him as to what he wants to do next.

In the running as Pacquiao foe are Miguel Cotto, Tim Bradley, Lamont Peterson and Juan Manuel Marquez and Arum will talk with one of these guys once it can be determined with finality that a fight with Mayweather cannot be salvaged.

Arum had dismissed Mayweather as an opponent for Pacquiao the past few days owing to several reasons but the unbeaten American fighter went on record on the Internet Saturday, saying the fight that he truly wants is against Pacquiao.

“I don’t want to fight anybody but him (Pacquiao). I don’t want to fight (Miguel) Cotto, not Canelo (Saul Alvarez) and I (am not) looking to fight (Juan Manuel) Marquez a second time,” Mayweather told fighthype.

“I’m not trying to fight (Robert) Guerrero. I fought a southpaw, I fought (Victor) Ortiz. Ortiz was a tune up preparing me for Pacquiao because I thought that fight was going to happen and it’s the fight I want to give the world,” said Mayweather, who knocked out Ortiz last September.

“I’m looking to fight Manny Pacquiao, why is he duckin’ and dodgin’ me?” said Mayweather.

Mayweather wants a May 5 date for a fight and the fact that Arum did not rule out Mayweather is a sign that something must have come up the past 24 hours.

Still, if a Mayweather fight doesn’t happen next, the 80-year-old Arum can still go to other attractive options.

Source: Manila Bulletin