Manny Pacquiao will be seen inside the boxing ring on Nov. 5, but the venue and his opponent has not been fixed so far. Three venues in Las Vegas -- MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay and the Tomas and Mack Center – are the favourites to host the event, and champion boxers Terence Crawford and Jessie Vargas have been lined up as possible opponents.
The Filipino boxer retired from the sport after beating Timothy Bradley in April. Pacquaio joined politics in the Philippines, and was also elected as a Senator in May, which made his much-talked about return into boxing difficult.
But, promoter Bob Arum always remained confident of bringing the Filipino for another bout, and he played an important role in convincing "Pacman" to come out of retirement. However, Pacquiao will not have more than 15 days or so to train for the fight as he will be concentrating on his political obligations in his native state. The question remains will he have enough time to train for champions like Crawford or Vargas?
Arum said, Pacquiao wants to fight for a world title on Nov.5, for which he might have to make some weight category shifts as well.
"He wants to fight for a world title," Boxing News 24 quoted Arum as saying.
"He wants to be a champion. Can he get down to 140 where he's physically strong? Can he get down to 140 and be strong to fight to fight a guy like Crawford or Postol or does he say no and goes to 147 to fight for a welterweight title; in which case, a guy like Jessie Vargas would be another for him to fight. There's no leading candidate. I just told you about the weight situation. Manny is going to have to make the weight," said Arum.
