Manny Pacquiao retired from boxing after beating Timothy Bradley by unanimous decision in April but has since developed an itch to fight again later this year in Las Vegas.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum revealed on Tuesday that Pacquiao, 37, will come out of retirement to fight again on either October 29 or November 5 in the main event of an HBO pay-per-view card in Las Vegas.
“Manny wants to come back. The problem is he can only come back if it doesn’t interfere with his senate duties,” Arum told ESPN.
“We had pencilled him in for Oct. 15 at Mandalay Bay but we were informed that is no longer possible because he has to spend that week leading up to Oct. 15 formulating the budget in the senate and doing the votes.
“So he has to be there for that week, so that knocks out that week. He can’t mess around with that. So now we’re looking at Oct. 29 or Nov. 5. The question is building availability because we want to do the fight in Las Vegas.”
Pacquiao holds a record of 58-6-2 with 38 knockouts. His opponent for the fall fight is not yet known.
“I knew this would happen. I’m not an idiot,” Arum added. “I wasn’t going to say [the Bradley fight] was Manny’s last fight and have people say I sold the fight under false pretences. I didn’t represent that so am I surprised by this? No. Not at all.”
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