Manny Pacquiao cannot make up his mind.
Pacquiao, who is due to fight what is supposed to be his final bout on April 9 in Las Vegas (HBO PPV), delayed the expected announcement of his opponent.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said earlier this week that Pacquiao’s opponent would be announced during the “MetroPCS Friday Night Knockout” card on truTV in San Juan, Puerto Rico. However, the announcement has been scrapped, Arum spokesman Fred Sternburg told ESPN.com on Thursday night.
“I was asked to tell you on Bob’s behalf that, unfortunately, Top Rank will not have an announcement on truTV as originally planned as Manny is not ready to make a decision on his opponent yet,” Sternburg said.
Pacquiao, the only boxer to win world titles in eight weight classes, has been considering three leading candidates: welterweight titlist Timothy Bradley Jr. (33-1-1, 13 KOs) and junior welterweight titlist Terence Crawford (27-0, 19 KOs), both of whom are promoted by Top Rank, and long shot Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs), who is associated with Al Haymon, one of Arum’s business enemies, and viewed by most as an unlikely opponent.
Bradley, who is 1-1 against Pacquiao, including a split decision win in their hugely controversial first fight, works as a ringside analyst on the truTV telecasts and is in Puerto Rico.
Crawford, the 2014 fighter of the year, is on vacation and is also there. Both expected the announcement on Friday night.
But now both will leave without knowing if they are getting the fight with Pacquiao, who Arum said will earn a guaranteed purse of $20 million against a percentage of the profits from the event regardless of whom he fights.
Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) is coming off rotator cuff surgery after injuring his arm in a unanimous-decision loss to Floyd Mayweather in their May 2 megafight, which shattered pay-per-view records and grossed more than $600 million.
Pacquiao plans to fight in April and then hit the campaign trail in the Philippines, where he is already a congressman but expected to easily win a senate seat in the May national elections.
If he wins the six-year term, the workload for a senator in the Philippines is much more intense than it is for a congressman and he would quit boxing to focus on his political position.
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