GEN. SANTOS CITY?FLOYD MAYweather Jr. remains the top candidate in the short list of Manny Pacquiao?s next opponent.
Promoter Bob Arum Monday said he will work to get Mayweather to face Pacquiao in what is being projected as the ?fight of the century? once he flies back to the United States on Tuesday.
And that?s regardless of the outcome of Pacquiao?s congressional bid in Sarangani.
Arum, who arrived here on Thursday, said he is looking at November as the target date for the bout, which could pay each fighter as much as $40 million.
The 78-year-old boxing Hall of Famer is leaving for Manila today to meet with ABS-CBN executives. He will fly back to Las Vegas later in the night.
?It?s (Pacquiao-Mayweather) what the people wants, so I?ll try to make things work out,? said Arum, adding that it doesn?t matter where the fight will be held.
Two likely venues are Las Vegas and Texas, which successfully staged the Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey fight on March 13 at the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.
If negotiations with the camp of Mayweather?who insists on random, Olympic-style blood testing?fall through, Arum might arrange a return bout with Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto, whom the Filipino superstar stopped in November last year, at 145 pounds.
This, however, hinges on a Cotto victory over Yuri Foreman in their 154-lb showdown on June 5.
?Manny can fight Cotto at a higher weight and try to win another title,? said Arum, who spent the whole day at Pacquiao?s mansion with Los Angeles Times? sports editor Bill Dwyre, Fanhouse?s Nancy, Time?s Andrew Marshall and Examiner.com?s Michael Marley, while waiting for Pacquiao to wake up.
Pacquiao voted early Monday in Kiamba town, 92 kilometers from this brownout-prone city, before returning home to sleep as afternoon rains fell.
Arum said another prospective foe is Mexican Antonio Margarito, who made a successful comeback on Saturday by beating Roberto Garcia in Mexico.
After thoroughly dominating Clottey before a crowd of 50,994, the largest ever in the United States for a bout not involving an American fighter, Pacquiao said he would take a long break from boxing.
Mayweather was supposed to be Pacquiao?s opponent on March 13, but the unbeaten American backed off after the pound-for-pound king refused to agree to the drug-testing protocol he wants.
