By Edward Chaykovsky
Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum is not revealing the options for Manny Pacquiao's next fight.
Pacquiao (59-6-2, 38 KOs) has been out of the ring since capturing the WBO welterweight title from Jessie Vargas last November at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.
Initially Pacquiao was announced, by Arum, to be facing undefeated 2012 Australian Olympian Jeff Horn on April 23 [April 22 in the United States]. Then two weeks later Pacquiao and Amir Khan had announced that they reached a deal to fight each other on April 23 in UAE. Then the date was pushed back to May 20. And now the deal is dead after the investors who were speaking with Pacquiao's handlers had failed to come up with the promised funds - reportedly a package of $38 million.
Khan's team is still pushing to face Pacquiao in the coming months.
Pacquiao held a poll on social media a few weeks ago and Khan was the runaway winner - gaining far more votes than Horn, WBC/WBO junior welterweight champion Terence Crawford and IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook.
Khan believes that he's the biggest option for Pacquiao. Arum disagrees with him and sees two bigger options for Pacquiao.
“Khan is not the biggest fight out there for Manny this year, but Terence Crawford or Adrien Broner [are bigger],” said Arum to the Manila Bulletin.
Broner was in action last month, at welterweight, and won a close decision over Adrian Granados. Crawford is set to return to the ring on a date in May against an opponent to be determined.
Pacquiao return won't happen until June or July, as the Filipino superstar wasted a lot of valuable time in dealing with the investors who were eager to bring him to the Middle East, but failed to show him the money.
“Manny chose to roll the dice and rolled the dice he did and came up with snake eyes,” Arum said. "Manny got carried away. If it’s too good to be true, it is too good to be true. They weren’t talking to the right people."