Promoter Bob Arum will soon make an official announcement regarding Manny Pacquiao’s next fight – regardless of what happens in the ongoing mediation talks between Top Rank and Golden Boy.
“We will have an announcement on Manny next Monday or Tuesday regardless of if anything happens on the other situation. We are moving forward with Pacman’s next fight,” the ageless promoter told boxingconfidential.com.
Verbally, Pacquiao’s next fight, his first since an April 14 victory over Mexico’s Jorge Solis in San Antonio, is scheduled Oct. 6, against another Mexican, Humberto Soto, at the General Motors Place in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Arum, according to boxing chronicler Michael Marley, described Vancouver as “the leading candidate” owing to the fact that there are close to 140,000 Filipino residents that can easily pack the venue regardless of who the opponent is.
Marley wrote in the popular boxing website that Arum’s forthcoming announcement of a Pacquiao-Soto fight could mean that the mediation talks between the two warring promotional outfits are bound to fail.
It “has come to a screeching halt,” according to the report.
Representatives of Top Rank and Golden Boy, disputing the promotional rights over the Filipino superstar, have already met twice before a Los Angeles judge, and are scheduled to resume talks any time the mediator calls for.
For the meantime, the judge has ordered the contending parties to observe silence and confidentiality regarding the points that were tackled in the first two meetings.
