It’s December 8 for Pacquiao’s next fight

The date has been pinned down. The opponent will be announced soon. This is the latest news coming out of Manny Pacquiao’s camp. The fight that was scheduled to happen on November 10 was later moved to the first Saturday of December. Now, Top Rank Promotions has finally pinned down a date for Pacquiao’s second fight this year, December 8. Various issues were given for the delay. Pacquiao’s camp claimed that the November fight date will mean he could not have a complete camp as he will need to go back to the Philippines to apply for his re-election bid on October. However, the Commission on Election debunked this and said that Pacquiao does not need to physically be there in the application. He only needs to send an authorized representative to file his Certificate of Candidacy. Even though this issue was cleared, Pacquiao and his team decided that they prefer the December fight date. "As is the customary procedure for working with the NSAC (Nevada State Athletic Commission, we requested the date (December 8) from them," Top Rank vice president Carl Moretti said in an interview with ESPN’s Dan Rafael. This information was also confirmed by NSAC’s executive director Keith Kizer. The fight will be held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Pacquiao said that he will spend the entire eight weeks of his training camp at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles, California instead of spending the first part in Baguio’s Shape-Up Boxing Gym. The Filipino fighter chose to start training in Baguio a few years back because of tax issues preventing him from being in the United States for a certain amount of time. Now that this issue is no longer on the table, Pacquiao and his team decided it would be best to train in LA. As of the moment there are only two fighters in the running to be Pacquiao’s next opponent. Juan Manuel Marquez and Timothy Bradley are the only fighters in Pacquiao’s short list. Miguel Cotto was also in the list early on but the two camps failed to agree on a catchweight. - AMD, GMA News