According to several reports in the Philippines, Top Rank CEO Bob Arum has arrived to General Santos City for a face to face meeting with eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao.
Arum is going to talk with Pacquiao regarding his boxing future and obviously to promote his next fight.
Arum had promoted Pacquiao for over a decade, but the Filipino fighter began to move away from Top Rank in the aftermath of his twelve round decision loss to Jeff Horn in July 2017.
Pacquiao returned to the ring last month in Malaysia - as part of a card which he personally promoted through his own company, MP Promotions. He stopped Lucas Matthysse in seven rounds to capture the WBA "regular" welterweight title. It was his first knockout victory since November of 2009.
Arum's company was in charge of the broadcasting rights in the United States, and placed the bout on ESPN+.
In what many felt was a direct reaction to Arum discussing potential opponents for Pacquiao in the future - the boxer recently took to social media to make it known, in a very firm manner, that he was a free agent.
“I, through MP Promotions, will be handling any and all negotiations for my next fight. Nobody is authorized to speak on my behalf. You know my number, call me,” Pacquiao wrote on social media.
Promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom recently revealed that he's trying to sign Pacquiao to appear on DAZN, which is a new streaming service set to launch next month. Hearn's company signed a multi-year deal to provide content to DAZN and he wants Pacquiao to be a featured fighter on the service.
DAZN will be a direct competitor to ESPN+, which is ESPN's new streaming service which made it's debut in June. Arum's company has an exclusive deal to provide content to ESPN.
