Bob Arum will try to make a deal for a November 13 fight between his fair-haired Filipino puncher and congressman-elect Manny Pacquiao against Floyd Mayweather as soon as he gets back to Las Vegas.
?I won?t let this (negotiations) drag on,? said Arum yesterday just before he boarded a Philippine Airlines flight to Las Vegas via Vancouver, Canada.
Arum had spent a week in the country ? mostly in General Santos City and Sarangani ? as a show of support to Pacquiao?s congressional bid that proved fruitful as the pound-for-pound king put an end to the reign of the influential Chiongbian family with a landslide victory.
?We brought home the bacon,? said the obviously-elated Arum, who endured the scorching heat and late nights during the tail-end of the campaign period in the company of other foreign dignitaries, including Bill Dwyre of the Los Angeles Times, Nancy Gay of AOL Fanhouse and ex-Don King PR chief Mike Marley.
Arum said the next couple of weeks should provide an answer to the question of who Pacquiao will fight next.
?I will try to make a deal in the next two weeks and if we can?t work something out (with Mayweather), then we will wait for the result of the June 5 fight between Miguel Cotto and Yuri Foreman,? said the 78-year-old Harvard-educated lawyer.
Pacquiao will be on hand when Cotto and Foreman slug it out at Yankee Stadium in New York since he will be in town to receive his third Fighter of the Year award from the Boxing Writers Association of America.
