TOP Rank promotions founder Bob Arum is looking to stage two Manny Pacquiao fights next year and is hoping one of them would still be against Floyd Mayweather Jr.
"Manny will fight two times next year, once in April and once probably in November. I want him to fight once in the United States and once in Macau,” said the 82-year-old boxing promoter.
Pacquiao's current contract with Top Rank is set to expire in December 2014, but Arum said negotiations are already underway for a new deal that would take their partnership through to 2016.
“We talked and he’s going to continue for another two years. So the contract we are talking about is till the end of 2016,” said the outspoken promoter.
Whether that contract would end up covering a blockbuster fight against Mayweather remains in doubt, especially if Pacquiao continues to fight under the banner of Arum's promotions.
However, Arum said he himself still sees hope in the fight happening under the same set-up that set the stage for Mike Tyson's fight with Lennox Lewis years ago.
The two fighters, then under rival promotional outfits, ended up in a fight through a collaboration by HBO and Showtime that included a pay-per-view production and revenue split.
“We’re always amenable to the Mayweather fight. We’re not talking to anybody, but it can be done the same way that the Lennox Lewis-Mike Tyson fight was done when two networks was involved,” Arum said.
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