Arum: Pacquiao to return on Oct. 29 or Nov. 5; Manny denies report
There were few who thought that Manny Pacquiao would walk away from the sport that made him a superstar despite announcing his retirement after defeating Timothy Bradley back in April. And now it is confirmed that the Filipino superstar’s brief hiatus will end later this year.
According to ESPN.com, Manny Pacquiao will return to boxing on either Oct. 29 or Nov. 5 in the main event of an HBO PPV in Las Vegas. This comes after Pacquiao retired to focus on his family and winning a seat as a senator in his home country of the Philippines. But those speeches that Pacquiao gave in April always felt half-hearted, especially after he put together a brilliant performance in toppling Bradley.
Speculation on a possible Pacquiao return started earlier this month when Top Rank’s Bob Arum reserved a October 15 date for the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. But with Pacquiao’s senatorial duties making his workload much more intense, the date had to be moved, as the Filipino fighter reportedly has to figure out how to manage his schedule so he can maintain his daily duties as a senator and prepare for a boxing match.
“Manny wants to come back. The problem is he can only come back if it doesn’t interfere with his senate duties,” Arum said. “We had penciled him in for Oct. 15 at Mandalay Bay but we were informed that is no longer possible because he has to spend that week leading up to Oct. 15 formulating the budget in the senate and doing the votes.”
There is still the matter of finding a venue as well. Arum wants to stage Pacquiao’s return in Las Vegas but building availability appears to be an issue. Arum is targeting the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Mandalay Bay Events Center or T-Mobile Arena, but nothing has been confirmed as of yet. If those three locations are out of the questions due to scheduling difficulties, Arum will look to the Thomas & Mack Center.
His opponent has yet to be announced, however, it won’t be a rumored showdown with Adrien Broner. Top Rank’s Bob Arum stated that Broner’s asking price was a “crazy number” and he effectively priced himself out of the bout.
“I worked very, very hard with [Broner’s adviser] Al [Haymon] to make the Broner fight but Al was never able to bring Broner around to a realistic number,” Arum said. “He wanted what we haven’t paid anybody in a long time. Just a crazy number. In effect he wanted parity with Manny and Al agreed that he couldn’t do anything with him. The kid is crazy.”
Other possible opponents include Terence Crawford, who faces Viktor Postol on July 23 in Las Vegas, as well as Jesse Vargas, who lost out on a Kell Brook fight when the Brit decided to jump up two weight classes for a showdown with Gennady Golovkin this fall.
There has been speculation regarding a rematch between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao considering very few expected both to be retired for long. Pacquiao will be the first to end his retirement while Mayweather appears to be comfortable away from the sport, for now.
UPDATE: Pacquiao took to Facebook to deny that he’s been contemplating a return to the ring with Arum.
“There is no truth to media reports that I’m planning to take a leave from my senate duties just to fight atop the ring,” Pacquiao said. He also stated that a fight has not been discussed with him and if there was any chance of there being a fight, it would happen when congress was on recess with his entire training camp taking place in the Philippines.
“When I ran for senator last May 9 elections, I made a promise to be present at all sessions,” Pacquiao said. “I owe it to the people.”
