According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, Manny Pacquiao will move his perspective November 10th fight back three weeks December 1st due to conflicts with his political schedule.
“Manny has to be in the Philippines for the filing of his candidacy in October, and I don’t want to interrupt his training, nor does Manny,” said Pacquiao adviser Michael Koncz. “If he fights on Nov. 10, it would interrupt his training because he would have to go back to the Philippines. You lose two days going there, and it’s a long trip in the middle of camp. We don’t want to have any excuses when he fights. I believe if he fought on Nov. 10 but made a trip at that time to the Philippines, we’d lose a week of physical training, and I don’t want there to be any excuses. So we can’t go on Nov. 10, and we have told that to our promoter (Top Rank).”
“Once he starts training, we’re doing it all in America,” Koncz said. “Once he gets here, he wants to stay here and be focused. The first time we trained in the Philippines for part of the time it was done for taxation reasons. So we started to do that, and Manny enjoyed it. But it’s becoming a chore. He felt the training camp would be sufficient to do it all in L.A.”
“It’s important to us, Manny and I, to move the date because we haven’t had the greatest performances in the last two fights and he wants to stay completely focused on his training,” Koncz said. “To do that, we’ve requested that our promoter move the fight to Dec. 1. We’re working very well with Bob on it. That was the alternative date we came up with.”
“Right now, they’re scheduling it for the MGM Grand, but I’ve had discussions on it with Bob, and it depends on what opponent we pick,” Koncz said.
“We still need to start promoting it, and we should make a final determination in the next week or so,” he said.
“As you know, we’re willing and able to fight Floyd anytime he wants, but I don’t believe he is ready,” Koncz said. “Floyd just got out of (county jail). He’s spending time with his family. He’s enjoying his freedom. He has money left over from the last fight after being in jail for two months. I don’t see Floyd going into the ring until next year, but who knows? I have no confirmation of his schedule. I’m just glad he’s out of jail. I wish him all the luck in the world and so does Manny, but I don’t see Floyd fighting before us this year.”
Pacquiao’s rumored opponents are a fourth fight with Juan Manuel Marquez or rematches with Timothy Bradley or Miguel Cotto.
