GENSAN ? A gift in the form of either Sugar Shane Mosley or Juan Manuel Marquez will be delivered at Manny Pacquiao?s doorstep just in time for Christmas.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is looking to strike a deal with any of the two aging, but elite fighters as Pacquiao?s next opponent for his highly-anticipated ring return on May 7 in Las Vegas.
The 79-year-old Arum arrived here Friday to attend the grand 32nd birthday celebration of the world?s top pound-for-pound fighter and at the same time, discuss on the side who Pacquiao prefers to face for his first bout for the year 2011.
From a choice of three probable candidates, Arum admitted the choice has been narrowed down between Mosley and Marquez, with reigning World Boxing Council (WBC) welterweight champion Andre Berto of Haiti stricken out of the list.
Arum said two separate meetings will be held between Mosley and Marquez next week. The Top Rank chairman is set to sit down with Mosley and his representative James Prince, at his Las Vegas office by Monday (Tuesday in Manila), while Top Rank president and Arum son-in-law Todd duBoef will be in contact with Richard Schaefer, the Golden Boy Promotions executive who handles the rights on Marquez.
?So, I?m gonna do one more meeting with Manny when I get back with the couple of fighters that we?ve been talking about and try to get a deal that is acceptable to Manny, ? said Arum, who gifted Top Rank?s top boxer today with an elegant Patek Philippe watch for his birthday present.
?Sometime in the middle of the week before Christmas, we?ll be able to announce who he?s fighting and where he?s fighting.?
Arum, who came over here with wife Lovee, trainer Freddie Roach and reigning World Boxing Organization (WBO) featherweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez aboard the 30-seater private plane of former Ilocos Sur Gov. Chavit Singson, failed to have an audience with Pacquiao when he and the rest of the entourage arrived at the boxing champion?s splendid mansion for a sumptuous lunch.
Owing to a busy schedule the day before his birthday, Pacquiao was still asleep when the group left.
But asked later whom he?d rather pick between Mosley and Marquez, the Filipino southpaw remained non-committal.
In between late lunch with lovely wife Jinkee and a few Manila-based reporters just before attending an afternoon mass, Pacquiao said he?d rather enjoy first his birthday celebration and the rest of the holidays.
?Very thankful tayo dahil naging successful yung taon na ito para sa akin,? said Pacquiao, who feasted on tinolang manok, clam soup, sugpo and crab during the lightning meal, his first since Thursday night, he admitted.
?Two fights and then `yung election,? said the congressman-elect of the lone district of Sarangani, when asked what made the year coming to an end very memorable to him.
Incidentally, wife Jinkee also gave her husband a Rolex watch for his own personal gift, before proceeding to the lavish birthday celebration Friday evening at the KCC Mall.
Although no opponent has been named yet, Arum said a grand press tour will be held by middle of February next year to hype the fight possibly to be held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
The Top Rank chairman said the press tour will take Pacquiao and his would be opponent to Los Angeles, New York and Washington, where Arum hopes to have an audience with President Barack Obama through the help of Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, whom Pacquiao campaigned for in the last election.
Arum added that a press conference to be held in San Francisco caps the press tour.
