Top Rank promoter Bob Arum remains unsure if the proposed Manny Pacquiao-Amir Khan fight in the United Arab Emirates will happen, but he said that if it does it will not be on April 23 (April 22 in the United States) as the fighters have said it would be.
Nor is Arum sure if it will happen on May 19 (May 20 in the U.S.), the date Pacquiao adviser Michael Koncz told Yahoo Sports it was being moved to. In fact, there is nothing quite certain about the fight, Arum said.
"The point is that this is all so premature," Arum told 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."
