MANNY PACQUIAO has until the first week of August to stay out of the gym after Bob Arum revealed yesterday that Top Rank has booked an Oct. 6 fight for the Filipino southpaw.
In an interview recently in General Santos City, Pacquiao said it would require him at least three months to recover the energy that he squandered while campaigning for a Congress seat in the first district of South Cotabato.
Early election returns showed that incumbent Darlene Antonino-Custodio is on her way to winning a third term.
“The trend is in their favor,” said businessman Rey Golingan, whose amateur boxing program in General Santos City was where Pacquiao first started showcasing his wares.
Golingan said that Pacquiao’s impending political setback had given the boxer a window of the people around his campaign, especially those who he felt took advantage of him.
“Some of these guys were lucky that they were not sentenced to die by musketry,” Golingan said, expressing Pacquiao’s disappointment with some of his advisers.
But in a short chat yesterday afternoon, Pacquiao was surprisingly upbeat and hardly sounded like one trailing badly in the early poll returns.
Pacquiao even managed to laugh although those who were with him the last several days said they’ve never seen Pacquiao so enraged after being informed of the early returns.
While Arum has already penciled a date, the choice of opponent will not be known until this week or the next since Pacquiao has yet to begin the recovery period from the grueling election season.
Arum, who was in the Philippines for four days to cheer for the 28-year-old Pacquiao, has named Joan Guzman of the Dominican Republic, Marco Antonio Barrera and Humberto Soto of Mexico and Edwin Valero of Venezuela and it will be up to Pacquiao to decide who to face next.
Pacquiao, who was sensational once again in his last fight, an April 14 knockout win over Jorge Solis of Mexico in San Antonio, Texas, said in a TV interview on the night of the elections that he will respect the result of the polls.
