Manny Pacquiao and Terence Crawford (Photo : Twitter)
The world awaited the announcement of Manny Pacquiao's next opponent last Friday but the former champion can't make up his mind.
There was speculation that Top Rank and Pacquiao's camp realized that the initial reaction to a bout between Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley was lukewarm and that most fans did not see a reason for having a third fight.
It was announced that Pacquiao will reveal his decision in TruTV's coverage of the fight between fellow Filipino boxer Nonito Donaire but a spokesman came up and said Pacquiao has not made his choice.
According to Fight Hype, Terence Crawford was the main reason for his hesitation.
"Sources close to the information have informed us that undefeated jr. welterweight champion Terence Crawford has taken the lead in the race to secure a lucrative April 9 showdown with 8-division former world champion Manny Pacquiao."
When the date and venue of the announcement was mentioned, it was speculated that Bradley's name would be called because he was present at the event in Puerto Rico as an announcer. But even his presence did not push the envelope.
Fight Hype also mentioned that Crawford was also in Puerto Rico at that time. Citing one of their sources, FH said that "he (Crawford) and Arum have had discussions in the past 48 hours about landing the assignment to face Pacquiao."
The report continued: "While the final decision allegedly rests with Pacquiao, we're told that the more likely scenario is that Pacquiao probably prefers to face Bradley, but Arum would rather he fight Crawford, so they need more time for both sides to get on the same page."
While this is the most likely scenario, it never stopped rumors about a possible Pacquiao-Mayweather rematch from surfacing, specifically from the First Take announcers.
In the video clip, Skip Bayless continues to dare Mayweather to face a "healthy" Manny Pacquiao as he accuses him of "running."
