Pacquiao Opponent Announcement Coming Soon

By Rey Danseco

BOXING idol Manny Pacquiao is expected to announce next week along with his promoter Bob Arum as to who will be his next opponent.

Pacquiao will fly to California this week to meet Arum and watch the HBO televised boxing event set for this coming weekend.

“We’ll let you know next week who will be my opponent,” said Pacquiao.

Arum eyes Injin Chi, the reigning WBC featherweight king, of South Korea as Pacquiao’s first foe this year at Wynn Macau in Macau, China on April 28.

Arum and Chi’s manager Keo-Sung Lee are talking about the terms of the 12-round contest, but Pacquiao has the right to choose if he wants Chi as the opponent. Arum waits for the Filipino boxer’s decision.

Pacquiao is expected at ringside in Arum’s installations at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California where two-time world champion Jorge Arce (45-3-1, 35 KOs) from Los Mochis, Mexico takes on Julio Ler (23-1, 14 Kos) from Cordoba, Argentina in the scheduled 12-round super flyweight confrontation.

A high-ranking officer of Wynn Macau revealed that they are not aware about Pacquiao’s bout in Wynn Macau, a $1.2 billion dollar hotel casino of 64-year-old billionaire Stephen Alan Wynn, who was ranked 365 among The World's Richest People In 2006, according to Forbes Magazine.

Arum and the American gambling mogul from Las Vegas previously worked during Pacquiao-Erik Morales clash last year when Wynn Las Vegas served as official house for the participants in one of the biggests bouts of 2006.

Wynn would support Pacquiao’s again, thinking that one of the world’s most popular boxers today will help boast the popularity of his sleek facility in the former Portuguese enclave off the southeastern Chinese coast. Macau is the only place in China that permits casino gambling.

"The speed of development is dizzying. The population it seeks to serve is expanding," Wynn said, in the resort's midnight opening last September.