Pacquiao's Next Foe to Be Revealed
MANILA, Philippines – Top Rank chief executive officer Bob Arum plans to reveal Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao's next opponent by next week.
In an interview with Boxing Scene, Arum said he will announce who Pacquiao will be fighting next after the Julio Cesar Chavez-Marco Antonio Rubio fight and the Super Bowl.
"We won't announce anything until after the Super Bowl. I don't want to take anything away from the Chavez fight on February 4," Arum said.
"We want to wait until the Chavez fight, and after the Super Bowl... probably Tuesday," he added.
Pacquiao is set to make his return to the ring on June 9, although the venue of the bout has not been finalized.
Arum originally presented Pacquiao with a list of four possible opponents: Juan Manuel Marquez, Lamont Peterson, Timothy Bradley and Miguel Cotto.
But Marquez and Peterson are both out of the picture, and Cotto has refused to fight Pacquiao at the welterweight division, instead asking for a 150-pound catchweight.
A potential mega-fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. is out of the question as well, after the undefeated American boxer refused to accept a 50-50 split.
This leaves Bradley as the most likely opponent for the Filipino boxer, though Arum has refused to count Cotto out of the equation.
"What if Cotto has an epiphany and suddenly calls and says he can make 147?" Arum said.
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