Boxing promoter Bob Arum has a new deal in place for Manny Pacquiao to fight either in June or July as the proposal to bring his act to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) turned out to be just a mirage as he had earlier feared.

“Manny chose to roll the dice and rolled the dice he did and came up with snake eyes,” Arum told the Bulletin yesterday from the Top Rank headquarters in Las Vegas.

There was a proposal, coursed through Pacquiao’s Canadian agent Mike Koncz, about a May 19 fight in Dubai or Abu Dhabi against Amir Khan and Arum noted that “Manny got carried away” with the promise of a $38-million payday.

“If it’s too good to be true, it is too good to be true,” said Arum, who initially expressed doubts whether the deal will come into fruition despite Khan agreeing to fight.

Arum had warned Koncz and Pacquiao to be wary of the UAE plan but they persisted in exploring the project that turned out to be a dud.

“They weren’t talking to the right people,” said the 85-year-old lawyer, sounding a bit sad that that the UAE was nothing more but a fantasy.

Arum was dangling an April 22 fight to face Jeff Horn in Brisbane, Australia, but Pacquiao’s camp saw the numbers as amounting to peanuts, compelling them to look elsewhere for a juicier deal.

Koncz arrived yesterday morning from the US and is going to discuss Arum’s revised proposal.

Arum hopes that Pacquiao experiences an epiphany as he has one more proffer for November.

“Khan is not the biggest fight out there for Manny this year but Terence Crawford or Adrien Broner,” said Arum, taking into account that Floyd Mayweather Jr. is retired and that old rival Juan Manuel Marquez doesn’t have anything to do with a fifth fight.

“Koncz will meet with Manny, and if he accepts it, we’ll go ahead. If he doesn’t, there’s nothing we can do,” Arum told Lance Pugmire of the LA Times.

Arum swears his revamped offer sheet to Pacquiao is real and not a pie in the sky.

Source:
courtesy of MANILA BULLETIN

by Nick Giongco

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