Comebacking Pacquiao to face US fighter Rios in Macau

(Updated 10:33am) Manny Pacquiao will face Brandon Rios at the CotaiArena of the Venetian Macau Resort on November 24, Pacquiao adviser Michael Koncz told ESPN's Dan Rafael.

[Related: Manny Pacquiao 'wants Macau fight']

According to Top Rank CEO Bob Arum, in an interview with News to Go, Pacquiao is set to sign the contract "after the elections," while Rios will put pen to paper "tomorrow" (Tuesday, US time).

The fight will be at welterweight, with Rios moving up from junior welterweight.

"We wanted to get a fight that would really be crowd-pleasing, where the two fighters went at each other and really gave the fans a show. And Brandon Rios has never given a bad fight," Arum said.

The ESPN report also quoted Koncz as saying that Rios had "the better style for Manny," adding that the former WBA lightweight champion was the pick after Pacquiao was turned down by Juan Manuel Marquez and Timothy Bradley, the two boxers who had defeated Pacquiao in 2012.

[Related: Bob Arum confirms Bradley-Marquez bout]

Ironically, Marquez and Bradley will instead be doing battle against each other, sometime in September or October.

[Related: Alvarado evens up the score, beats Rios via decision]

Rios most recently lost to fellow American Mike Alvarado, in a battle for the interim WBO Light Welterweight title, last March 30 (March 31, PHL time).

This will be the first time since 2006 for Pacquiao to fight outside the United States. He won the WBC International Super Featherweight title against Oscar Larios in Manila back in July 2 of that year. 

According to boxing analyst Danrex Tapdasan, who is also an international boxing referee, having the fight in Macau is a sign of Pacquiao's declining marketability.

However, Arum elaborated in the ESPN report that "Bradley and Marquez preferred to fight each other and they didn't really want to go to Asia. The only one that benefits from the fight being outside the U.S. is Pacquiao because an American like Bradley still has to pay taxes in the U.S. and for Marquez still has to pay taxes in Mexico, where the rate is about the same as in the U.S. For Pacquiao it's a big deal because the tax rates in the Philippines are much lower."

Pacquiao and his team also considered holding the fight in Dubai and Singapore.

In 2012, Pacquiao suffered back-to-back defeats, losing in controversial fashion to Bradley in June, before getting knocked out cold by Marquez in December. A win against the 27-year-old Rios would go along way towards re-establishing the Filipino ring icon as fixture in the sport.

It's a crucial fight for Manny. It's like baseball. If you have two strikes, you're still up to plate. But if you have three strikes, you're out. So it's a very, very important fight for him," Arum opined.

"[Should Pacquiao lose again] his marketability to sell a lot of pay-per-views in the United States would really be adversely affected."  - AMD/HS, GMA News