According to a news story in The Manila Times, the Manny Pacquiao-Amir Khan fight has a new date: May 20th. The two fighters recently tweeted how they had reached an agreement to fight on April 23rd but it now appears as though the fight for Pacquiao’s WBO welterweight title will be pushed back.
Still, not everyone is convinced the fight will happen at all. Pac-Man’s promoter Bob Arum has been sceptical since before the two fighters tweeted how they had reached a deal and the Top Rank boss remains unconvinced. But in speaking with The Manila Times, Eric Pineda, Pacquiao’s business manager, said the fight is set for May 20 in the UAE; either Dubai or Abu Dhabi. But Pineda said he cannot give out details of who is bankrolling the big fight.
“We already informed Senator Manny about the fight date a week ago. It’s already official now,” Pineda said. “We cannot reveal our financial backer, that’s a secret.”
And Michael Koncz, Manny’s advisor, told Yahoo! Sports that the May 20 date is a go.
“We decided to May 19 here [in the US] and May 20 in the UAE so we’d have time to promote it properly and make it a huge success,” Koncz told Kevin Iole. “I have to speak to both fighters on Wednesday to get them to approve going in May instead of April. I don’t think there will be any problem.”
But Arum does see a problem, in that he has yet to see the colour of the backer’s money.
“I want something more,” Arum told The Manila Times. “It’s only official when the money is available to pay the expenses and the fighters. Otherwise, it’s all talk. I don’t know who is putting up the money or if the money is real.”
Arum added how he will only work on the fight if and when “someone puts up the money.” So, will it happen or has Pac-Man had his time wasted by big talk of big money that will ultimately fail to materialise? May 20 is still well over two months away, conceivably plenty of time to get the fight made and promoted sufficiently. By then, however, Khan will have been out of action for over a year.