Manny Pacquiao to fight in mid-November, hoping for Floyd Mayweather Jr.

By Brett Okamoto

Wednesday, May 12, 2010 | 2:10 p.m.

One day after welterweight boxing champion Manny Pacquiao scored a major upset by winning a seat in the Philippine Congress, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum held a conference call with select media members to lay out what's next for his fighter.

His hopes for Pacquiao are the same as the rest of the world — a mega-fight with undefeated welterweight Floyd Mayweather Jr.

"The fight we want to do is Mayweather," Arum said. "There's no question that's the fight the public wants and the fight that Manny wants.

"And that's the fight I'm going to do my darndest to make happen."

Following his most recent win in the ring, a unanimous decision over Joshua Clottey at Dallas Cowboys Stadium in March, Pacquiao turned his attention to the Philippine election, one of the few fights many said he didn't have a chance in.

As results of that election began to come in Tuesday, however, it was clear that wasn't the case. He beat opponent Roy Chiongbian by a landslide.

"People don't realize that his victory, over the candidate that he beat, was a tremendous upset," Arum said. "Nobody expected him to pull this off. The Chiongbian family holds all the major businesses in this province."

Arum doesn't expect Pacquiao's political responsibilities to interfere with his training schedule and said that he will return to the boxing ring mid-November.

Top Rank will now enter negotiations with Mayweather's camp and his Golden Boy Promotions for the second time in less than six months.

The two fighters were expected to meet in March until negotiations fell through when Mayweather demanded that Pacquiao undergo drug testing through random blood tests. The Nevada State Athletic Commission only requires fighters to submit to urine tests.

Pacquiao (51-3-2, 38 KOs) moved on to face Clottey in March. Mayweather (41-0, 25 KOs) took a fight against Shane Mosley, which he won by unanimous decision May 1.

Arum said one of the biggest mistakes in the first round of negotiations last December was that both sides took the fight away from each other and into the media — a mistake he's committed to not repeating.

"Once you start negotiating through the media, it becomes an ego contest," Arum said. "Each side can't wait to give their statement to the press. There's no real opportunity for rational behavior to take over."

This method of drug testing won't be the lone roadblock preventing the sides from agreeing.

Mayweather had agreed to a 50/50 financial split the first time around, but might be unlikely to go for that again considering his recent pay-per-view fight against Mosley generated 1.4 million buys for a revenue of $78.3 million. He holds the two highest-grossing pay-per-view fights in the sport's history.

The sides might also disagree on where the fight should be held. Arum built a close relationship with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones when he took Pacquiao to Dallas in March. That fight drew an attendance of 50,994.

Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schafer, however, likely will prefer the MGM Grand Garden Arena. The original fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao would have taken place there.

Arum wouldn't go so far as to say that not holding the fight in Dallas would kill negotiations, but it does seem obvious that Cowboys Stadium is his first choice.

"I'm not married to Dallas," Arum said. "Jerry Jones is a terrific guy, and I'm going to advocate putting any fights of Manny's in a place where it's going to do best.

I'm not the genius that figured this out. I'm just going along with what seems to be common sense. If you want your product shown to the biggest possible audience, you have to put it in the biggest possible arena."

Jones said a mega-fight could draw a crowd similar to the 108,000 fans that attended the NBA All-Star game at his stadium in February.

Another factor that could influence the deal is a pending defamation lawsuit Pacquiao filed on Mayweather's camp after the first negotiations broke down. The lawsuit accused Mayweather of falsely stating that Pacquiao had used performance-enhancing drugs in his career.

There is speculation that Pacquiao might offer to withdraw the lawsuit as a bargaining tool during the fight negotiations.

"There are all these issues that are on the table that will be negotiated," Arum said. "It's nothing that can be discussed at this time, but I assume that during the negotiations, the issue of the pending lawsuit will be discussed."

If the two sides are again unable to come to terms, Pacquiao likely will face formerly suspended Antonio Margarito in mid-November.

Brett Okamoto can be reached at 948-7817 or [email protected].