Manny Pacquiao
Pacquiao left boxing after beating Timothy Bradley in May but will be back before the end of the year. Getty

KEY POINTS

  • The 37-year-old walked away from boxing to focus on his political career in May.
  • Arum says fight will take place on 29 October or 5 November.
  • Adrien Broner, Terence Crawford and Jessie Vargas possible opponents.

Manny Pacquaio will return to the ring just five months after announcing his retirement from boxing. The eight-weight world champion defeated Timothy Bradley in May, bowing out of the sport with a career record of 66 fights and 58 wins defeats to shift his focus to his political career in his native Philippines.

Even before that thrilling final bout, there were doubts whether Pacquiao could stay away from the ring, with his own trainer Freddie Roach and promoter Bob Arum refusing to believe the 37-year-old would stick to his promise.

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Arum has now confirmed the former welterweight king will return to headline a HBO pay-per-view in Las Vegas, an event to be held on 29 October or 5 November, providing those dates do not clash with his senate duties.

Arum told ESPN: "Manny wants to come back. The problem is he can only come back if it doesn't interfere with his senate duties. We had pencilled him in for Oct 15 at Mandalay Bay but we were informed that is no longer possible because he has to spend that week leading up to Oct 15 formulating the budget in the senate and doing the votes.

"So he has to be there for that week, so that knocks out that week. He can't mess around with that. So now we're looking at Oct 29 or Nov 5. The question is building availability because we want to do the fight in Las Vegas."

Adrien Broner had been touted as a possible opponent for Pacquiao's return. But having held talks with his advisor Al Haymon, Arum says the figures the 26-year-old is demanding are not realistic.

"He [Broner] wanted what we haven't paid anybody in a long time. Just a crazy number. In effect he wanted parity with Manny and Al agreed that he couldn't do anything with him. The kid is crazy."

Other possible opponents could include Terence Crawford, the unbeaten welterweight who was in contention to face Pacquiao before the Bradley fight was confirmed last December. Jessie Vargas could be an alternative option. The reigning WBO welterweight champion looked set to take on IBF champion Kell Brook in a title unification bout this autumn, but with the Sheffield-born now booked in for a huge middleweight showdown with Gennady Golovkin, Vargas could be available.