Manny Pacquiao is coming out of retirement for a fight Nov. 5 against Jessie Vargas at Las Vegas' Thomas & Mack Center, and while Pacquaio is under contract with HBO, Top Rank Chair Bob Arum said that the net "will not be involved in producing and distributing" the PPV boxing event, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.com. Arum "did not say which broadcaster would." Arum and HBO have been "knocking heads over the date." HBO is "already contracted" to put on the Nov. 19 PPV fight between Sergey Kovalev and Andre Ward and "does not want to put on" two PPV events in the same month. Arum said that if HBO "passed on doing the Pacquiao fight" on PPV, it would "make Pacquiao a free agent, which would be difficult for HBO to allow." In spite of Pacquiao's "falling pay-per-view numbers, there is still a possibility of a gargantuan fight next year -- a rematch" with Floyd Mayweather Jr. The net "surely would not want to cede its share of the potential windfall entirely to rival Showtime/CBS" (ESPN.com, 8/10).
MONEY GRAB: YAHOO SPORTS' Kevin Iole wrote Pacquiao's return is "truly sad," because he is "fighting because he needs the money." Iole: "This isn't going to be good. There is no shtick to sell this fight." But with a "tough sell ahead of him, Arum is back." He will "probably have a camera installed in the senate so fight fans can watch Pacquiao doing his thing in Manila." Few in boxing history "have had the ability to turn nothing into something like Arum." He has the "ability to come up with storylines that attract media attention, which the fight promotion business needs as regularly as the human body needs oxygen" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 8/10).
