According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, a fight between Manny Pacquiao and Amir Khan is not yet a reality.
“The point is that this is all so premature,” Top Rank’s Bob Arum told ESPN on Wednesday. “It’s all bulls—. But Manny is not going to fight in April. I don’t even know if May is feasible. I haven’t even talked to Manny. All it is right now is a discussion. It’s like somebody saying, ‘Hey, let’s build a new stadium for the Raiders in Las Vegas.’ You can say anything, but we’re a long way from it being done.”
Arum and Koncz met for dinner on Tuesday night in Las Vegas, where Arum lives, to talk about the possible deal with an unnamed investment group interesting in bringing Pacquiao to the UAE — at a site to be determined in Dubai or Abu Dhabi — to defend his welterweight world title against Khan, whose Muslim background makes him the group’s preferred opponent.
Koncz told Yahoo Sports that instead of April 23 the fight would instead take place on May 20 — meaning a rare Friday night pay-per-view in the U.S. time zones — in order to allow more time to promote the event. But Arum said that although he and Koncz talked about the new date it is not even close to being set in stone.
“We had a nice meeting, but there’s a lot of work to do before anything materializes,” Arum said. “A lot of work. As of now, other than the fact that Michael and I are on the same page as far as the fight not happening in April and that we hope to make something happen, who knows? I have absolutely nothing to report definitively and I am not f—— around.”
“After I met with Koncz I realized everything was up in the air as far as the money [in the UAE]. They punted to me and said, ‘Go find the money.’ So far it hasn’t surfaced,” Arum said, laughing. “Did I discuss a date in May with Michael? Yes. But I’ve got to talk to the people in the Middle East to see if this is real, to see if they can even go on that date in May, to see what venue would be available. Nobody has checked with them. I suggested the date to Koncz, but to say it’s done, again, it’s ridiculous.”
