WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao, right, of the Philippines, fights during his world welterweight title boxing match against WBO junior welterweight champion Chris Algieri of the U.S. at the Venetian Macao in Macau, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2014. AP
Promoter Bob Arum had already proposed a date for Manny Pacquiao’s potential farewell fight but his opponent won’t be named until the end of next month with the Top Rank honcho still waiting on how the next several weeks will unfold.
But of all the possible Pacquiao foes, undefeated American Terence Crawford has emerged as a frontrunner after he retained his WBO light welterweight title with a 10th round stoppage of Canadian Dierry Jean over the weekend.
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“Well, what happens is this, this fight on Saturday, because we can’t rely on Manny seeing it in the Philippines, we had a tape sent to Mike (Koncz), who’s sending it to Manny. So by Tuesday or Wednesday he’ll have seen the fight, if he hasn’t already,” Arum told BoxingScene.com.
“And then we’re going to wait for November 7th to see what comes out of the Bradley-Rios fight and at that point — and let’s assume as far as Bradley’s concerned or Rios — whoever wins, we may have to wait for another two weeks to see if Canelo beats Cotto because the winner of Bradley-Rios could also fit against Canelo.”
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Timothy Bradley and Brandon Rios, both Pacquiao victims, will slug it out for the WBO welterweight crown on Nov. 11 at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas while Canelo Alvarez and Miguel Cotto face off 10 days later also in Las Vegas.
“So sometime before the end of November I will probably fly to the Philippines with Mike and we will go over everything and make our decision.”