Manny Pacquiao, Ring Magazine?s featherweight champion and HBO?s 2003 ?Fighter of the Year? leaves for the US Friday with business manager Rod Nazario for a scheduled meeting on Monday with promoter Murad Muhammad and top executives of HBO Sports headed by Kerry Davis. Team Pacquiao hopes to finalize details of the flamboyant Filipino southpaw?s next ring battle.
HBO has set May 22 as the date for a Pacquiao fight and is hoping that Juan Manuel Marquez would come to terms to defend his WBA and IBF titles against Pacquiao. Top Rank president Bob Arum has said that he and Murad Muhammad had reached an agreement but Nazario, in a conversation with Manila Standard hinted that there were problems in the negotiations since Marquez wanted the same purse as Pacquiao which is reportedly $1 million but that HBO was reportedly willing to pay him only $300,000.
