Manny Pacquiao officially has his next fight date set, quickly returning from a brief retirement to fight this fall.
As promoter Bob Arum relays to ESPN, Manny Pacquiao's short-lived retirement is officially set to end on Nov.
5th when Pacquiao will return to the ring at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. Arum had originally wanted Pacquiao to return on Oct.15th, but conflicts with Pacquiao's senatorial duties ultimately ruled that out. Arum says the Philippines senate will be in recess in the weeks leading up to the Nov. 5th date, with Pacquiao working by day and training by night before then.
"We are going to film Manny -- if we can get into the senate -- working as a senator during the day and then training at night. We'll have a camera crew over in the Philippines. But then he will finish with the budget votes he has to work on around Oct. 15 and he will come to Los Angeles with [trainer] Freddie [Roach] and finish training."
Arum also says Pacquiao's fight will be televised on HBO PPV, but the network has yet to confirm this themselves. And with HBO heavily invested in a prospective Nov. 19th fight between Sergey Kovalev and Andre Ward, it would be rather atypical for them to host two major PPVs so close together. This could potentially mean that if Arum wants to keep the date, he may need to do it without HBO in the fold.
The biggest question, however, is who Pacquiao will be facing when he returns. Arum says his short list currently includes Jessie Vargas, Terence Crawford (if he gets past Viktor Postol this weekend), and Postol himself (who he admits is a much longer shot to land the fight even with a win).