Arum: Everything’s done on Pacman-Horn fight

MANILA, Philippines - As far as Bob Arum is concerned, the WBO welterweight clash between Filipino superstar Manny Pacquiao and unbeaten Australian Jeff Horn on July 2 “is done.”

Arum insisted it’s just a matter of time before the final decision arrives.

“As far as I’m concerned everything is done. But there are some little strings but they don’t amount to much,” Arum told www.boxingscene.com yesterday.

Arum told The STAR last Saturday he expects Pacquiao to sign the fight contract “in the next hours or so.”

Yet, the camp of the reigning welterweight champion remained tight-lipped.

“We’re still reviewing,” said Pacquiao’s adviser, Mike Koncz, in a text message to The STAR.

Arum also told www.boxingscene.com that “there is no deadline” for Pacquiao to call the fight scheduled to take place at the 52,000-seat Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.

It’s still three months to the date and even if it takes Pacquiao a couple more days or a couple more weeks to agree to the fight, there will be enough time for things to fall into place. 

“The idea was that in order to secure the money from the Queensland government we had to tell them that the deal was done by the end of March and right now we’re finishing up all the contracts,” Arum said.

“First, we want to finalize the deal. Then we’re going to have press conferences in Australia for about a week then we’ll come back to the US,” he added.

A source told The STAR the other day that Pacquiao is not too keen on fighting Horn. Another possible reason why it’s taking the fighting senator time to seal the deal is because the UAE offer is still in place.

Pacquiao, according to the source, is more interested and remains hopeful in the bigger, better offer from the UAE.