by Ronnie Nathanielsz
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is waiting for a proposal from the camp of Miguel Cotto before a final decision is made by “Fighter of the Decade” Manny Pacquiao on who he will face in an HBO pay-per-view main event on December 1 or December 8, confirming several reports on BoxingScene.com regarding the target dates. Arum is confident that Pacquiao will fight on one of the two presented dates.
Despite some uncertainty over the date, as well as the opponent, Arum told BoxingScene.com/Manila Standard he is “very okay” after Pacquiao “again said last night that he is going to fight and now it’s a question of sorting out who and where. There is no hurry, we’ll get it done by Monday or Tuesday if not over the weekend.”
Arum said “I’m relaxed about it. He (Pacquiao) said that he was going to fight either on the 1st or the 8th of December and that’s the way it is.”
The Top Rank promoter said he has “no idea really who Pacquiao is leaning towards” among the three options presented to him.
Arum has already received the requested terms from WBO 140-pound champion Juan Manuel Marquez and WBO welterweight king Timothy Bradley. Once Cotto submits his requested terms then Pacquiao will make a final decision regarding his December opponent.
Arum disclosed “we don’t have a final proposal from Cotto but we do have (one) from Marquez and Bradley and once we get the Cotto position then Pacquiao will make his decision.”
Pacquiao scored a 12th round TKO over Cotto in their first meeting. He dropped the Puerto Rican twice en route to the victory in November 2011. In Pacquiao's last fight, which took place on June 9th, he lost a controversial twelve round split decision to Bradley.
In several recent reports on BoxingScene, Marquez and his promoter Fernando Beltran of Zanfer Promotions firmly believe they are sitting in the frontrunner position to secure Pacquiao in December.
At the same time Arum revealed that he had “been approached by some people relating to Floyd Mayweather Jr. but you never know how real it is.”
There’s been talk since Mayweather came out of a shortened prison term earlier this month that a megabuck fight with Pacquiao would take place in the first half of next year, possibly giving way for Pacquiao’s bid for re-election from the lone district of Sarangani province in the November 10 mid-term elections.
Mayweather himself took a step forward by lowering the anti-Pacquiao rhetoric by recently stating the Filipino eight division world champion is “an unbelievable fighter.”