Top Rank Promotion Boss Bob Arum arrived in General Santos City on board a private jet, according to a Team Pacquiao insider.
The 86-year-old legendary promoter was in a meeting with the fighting senator Manny Pacquiao apparently to sit down with the new WBA welterweight champion, and find out what the future holds between them.
Last year, the relationship between Pacquiao and Arum was not good after Pacquiao lost to Australian Jeff Horn in July 2017.
Although Pacquiao promoted his own fight against Lucas Matthysse in Kuala Lumpur last July 15, in partnership with Golden Boy, he did not totally burn the bridge with Arum by letting the Top Rank handle the broadcasting of the fight in the United States.
Arum is in town to discuss matters with Pacquiao, who announced on social media last month that MP Promotions “will be handling any and all negotiations for my next fight.”
It may be a hint that he is cutting his promoter-and-boxer ties with Top Rank. Pacquiao scored a sensational seventh-round TKO win over Matthysse at the Axiata Arena, and posted his first stoppage win in nearly eight years and away the WBA welterweight crown from the Argentine.
There are big fights await Pacquiao after his victory over Matthysse, and they include those against Arum’s fighters, WBA lightweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko and WBO welterweight king Terence Crawford.
Given Arum’s influence, he could easily make the fight to happen before 2018 ends.