Manny Pacquiao exercised his rematch clause and could face Jeff Horn in November, according to Dan Rafael of espn.com.
“Manny doesn’t want to retire. He wants the rematch, so we are going to do the rematch,” promoter Bob Arum told ESPN. “Manny told me he wants to do the rematch, but now we are looking for the window that satisfies the Senate. We need to see when they have a recess that will allow Manny the time he needs to train and have the fight.”
“Once I have an answer from the Senate when they have their recess, I will go to my partner in Australia, Duco [Events], and we will figure out where we’re going to do the fight,” Arum said. “[The state of] Queensland has certain rights from hosting the first fight, but we need to figure out where the fight will be. The problem is we can’t have it outdoors again because of the weather. November is the summer there, and it’s brutal to do it outdoors. We can’t do it. Even in July, which is their winter, it was pretty hot outdoors.”
Arum said venues in Brisbane and Sydney will be considered, and once the availability of venues is known, he will go to ESPN “and see if the date is in accord with the network’s schedule. But we’ll do the fight again with our partners at ESPN. The good thing is, in Australia they don’t mind if the fight is on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, so if it’s on a Saturday afternoon in Australia, it’s a Friday night in the United States.”
“I think the first fight was an excellent fight. It was competitive and [Horn] feels emboldened, and I think it will be a very good fight again,” Arum said. “And now Horn is known much more in the United States after that fight.”
