Pacquiao picks date to fight, but not opponent

LAS VEGAS - Promoter Bob Arum met with former welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao in Los Angeles on Monday and said the only news of substance to come out of the meeting is that Pacquiao will fight next on Nov. 10.Whether that’s a rematch with either Timothy Bradley, Juan Manuel Marquez or Miguel Cotto or a bout with Floyd Mayweather Jr. remains anybody’s guess. Pacquiao lost the World Boxing Organization welterweight title in a highly controversial split decision to Bradley on June 9 in Las Vegas that prompted an international furor.Arum said Pacquiao made it clear he wants to fight Mayweather, but Arum said he told Pacquiao it would be “most unlikely” a bout with Mayweather could be arranged for 2012. Mayweather is serving an 87-day sentence at the Clark County, Nev., Detention Center in Las Vegas and isn’t expected to be released until Aug. 3.One boxing source on Thursday told Yahoo! Sports that it’s 99 percent certain there will be a Pacquiao-Bradley rematch, but Arum said Pacquiao did not indicate that to him. “He kept a true poker face,” Arum said of Pacquiao. “I explained to him everything that is going on and what we thought, but he didn’t give anything away. He just listened and took it all in.”If he goes by pay-per-view numbers, he’ll pick Marquez. Pacquiao’s fight with Marquez last year sold 1.3 million on pay-per-view, Arum said. He said the Pacquiao-Bradley fight did 900,000 sales, “maybe a little more.”Arum said closed circuit sales for Pacquiao-Bradley were “tremendous, really good, encouraging,” but he said the pay-per-view number didn’t follow suit.“It is what it is,” Arum said of the Pacquiao-Bradley pay-per-view result. “Manny had a history with Marquez and Marquez had a huge fan base among the Hispanics. Bradley, nobody had heard of him before. We did the best promotion we could and the number that came back, came back.“It’s still a good number. Do you know how many people would love to do a pay-per-view like that?”Pacquiao is still its big star, despite the result of the June 9 bout, but Arum insisted Top Rank had not and would not abandon Bradley.