Promoter: Pacquiao will run for Congress, fight date hinges on opponent

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Manny Pacquiao will indeed seek election as a member of Congress in the Philippines, his promoter said Monday, but tomorrow’s deadline to learn if he’ll run opposed or not is the key factor affecting the boxer’s possible super-fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. next year.

‘If he has to run against an opponent, then he’ll have to start campaigning for the May 10 election on March 25,’ Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum told The Times. ‘If that’s the case, then Mayweather would have to be willing to fight March 13.’

Mayweather and many others, including Arum, however, would prefer if the bout could occur May 1. If Pacquiao runs unopposed, that can happen -- as long as financial negotiations can produce a deal.

‘Obviously, we could use the extra month and a half to get ready for something like that,’ said Arum.

Arum said he’s heard from representatives in the Philippines that one person is waffling on whether or not to oppose Pacquiao in the run for the congressional seat in the province of Sarangani.

‘People are trying to talk the opponent out of it,’ Arum said. ‘I don’t know how they’re doing it, or who the person is. I’m over here [in Las Vegas] and getting stories from a dozen different people.’

Politics at its finest.

Meanwhile, Arum said he received a phone call Monday from Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones on Monday again expressing interest in hosting a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight in his massive Texas football stadium.

Arum declined to discuss how the Pacquiao-Mayweather financial negotiations have thus far progressed.

-- Lance Pugmire