Arum: Manny Pacquiao taking Senate leave to fight on HBO PPV main event (Updated)

On April 9^th, Manny Pacquiao announced his retirement from boxing after defeating Timothy Bradley via unanimous decision, after which, he made a promise that he would put his sole focus on public service.

Sen. Pacquiao has been criticized for his lack of commitment as a politician, having attended only four sessions in Congress for the entire year of 2014. For this, the Filipino boxing champion guaranteed "zero absences" if elected as a Senator of the Republic of the Philippines.

But this promise may be broken, according to his promoter Bob Arum. Speaking to Boxingscene, the Top Rank Promotions chief confirmed that Sen. Pacquiao is already planning to take a Senate leave for a boxing comeback, sooner than later.

"He is working with the President of the Philippines senate for an appropriate date where he can leave the Philippines for two or three weeks to prepare for the fight," Arum said.

"In any event he is going to have to do most of his preparation in the Philippines - you know after he sits in the senate - so it is going to be an interesting thing but definitely he is looking to come back and the question is how can we arrange it."

In another interview with ESPN on Tuesday, Arum already has a date and venue in place for Sen. Pacquiao’s return to the ring.

"We had penciled 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," Arum said.

"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."

No opponent has been named for Pacquiao's (58-6-2, 38 KOs) return to the ring, although Arum said that the controversial Adrien Broner (32-2, 24 KOs) would not be an option due to his purse demands, which Arum claims included getting paid the same amount as Pacquiao.

UPDATE: Manny Pacquiao has denied media reports on his official Facebook page.