by Nick Giongco
Top Rank chief Bob Arum has already a time and date and venue for Manny Pacquiao’s next fight and it’ll happen exactly six months from now.
Noontime of Nov. 16 at Cotai-Arena in The Venetian in Macau.
“Macau wants Manny to fight there (again),” said the Hall of Fame promoter from the US.
Arum said Macau is willing to go the extra mile in hosting Pacquiao for the second time.
Importing Pacquiao to Macau seems to be the most sensible thing to do since the former Portuguese colony is determined to make up for the expected drop in pay-per-view subscriptions given that the fight is going to take place outside the US.
Last time Pacquiao fought in Macau, the PPV sales took a hit and there were less than 500,000 buys.
Good thing for Pacquiao’s team and Top Rank, The Venetian agreed to extend more financial concessions in anticipation of a massive drop in revenue since the opponent was the lesser known Brandon Rios.
Arum said a few weeks ago that Macau doesn’t care about shelling out money because it is trying its best to become the newest and hippest destination.
Unless Las Vegas matches what Macau will bring to the table, Arum is looking forward to bringing back Pacquiao again in November.
Macau has so much gaming revenue that it would be easy for it to cough out a hefty amount just for the right to host Pacquiao’s fight against anybody.
Besides, Pacquiao won’t be taxed heavily if he ends up strutting his stuff over there unlike in the US where more than 30 percent of his purse will go to the taxman.
As of today, the only thing that is still lacking is the name of the opponent although the wait will be over pretty soon.
By the end of the week, Arum will get an idea who it is going to be.
This Saturday night (Sunday morning in Manila), Juan Manuel Marquez and Mike Alvarado will slug it out in Los Angeles.
It is no secret that Arum is lining up Pacquiao against the survivor of the Marquez-Alvarado showdown.
However, everything is going down the drain if, by a stroke of luck, Floyd Mayweather suddenly makes the ultimate decision to finally get it on with Pacquiao.
But as of this writing, all roads lead to Macau.