Manny Pacquiao announced his retirement after defeating Timothy Bradley in April, moving out of the sports world to become a senator in the Philippines. Well, the welterweight star's retirement has been short-lived as he will be returning to the ring in November as the main event draw for an HBO pay-per-view taking place in Las Vegas.
According to his promoter, Bob Arum, Pacquiao will fight at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas on Nov. 5 against an opponent to be named later. The opponent is expected to be announced in the weeks following Terence Crawford and Viktor Postol's 140-pound title unification bout on Saturday.
Pacquiao hopes his return to the ring is for a shot at a title. He has not fought at junior welterweight since his 2009 victory over Ricky Hatton, but moving down to take on the 140-pound title holder -- particularly if it's Crawford, a Top Rank fighter -- is a possibility.
Another potential fight for Pacquiao is welterweight title holder Jessie Vargas, whose hopes at a unification bout with Kell Brook were dashed when Brook took a middleweight title fight with Gennady Golovkin. Vargas is also a Top Rank fighter, as it seems Arum is set on keeping Pacquiao's next opponent in the Top Rank family.
Part of that is due to frustrations he's had recently in booking Pacquiao's next opponent. Arum told ESPN.com's Dan Rafael that there had been discussions with Al Haymon, promoter for Adrien Broner, but Broner had priced himself out of the fight by demanding a "crazy number."
Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, wants a rematch with Floyd Mayweather as his boxer's return fight.
"I want the rematch with Mayweather," Roach told USA Today. "Manny thought he won that fight and he would definitely want that fight, for sure."
However, with Mayweather still retired as of now and considering the difficulties that faced the promotion of the first fight, it would be an incredible long shot to make that fight happen by the Nov. 5 date. A Mayweather rematch, if it were to ever happen, seems far more likely to take place in 2017 should Pacquiao pick up a title in this November fight. That would give the fight a bit more buzz if Pacquiao can look good in a title win, put a title at stake and allow Mayweather to return for his favorite fight date -- Cinco de Mayo weekend.
We'll find out Pacquiao's next opponent soon enough, though, and Saturday night's bout between Crawford and Postol could have serious ramifications on who that opponent will be.
