Pacquiao asks fans to pick opponent

Manny Pacquiao on Monday asked his legions of Twitter followers to choose his next opponent after the World Boxing Organization welterweight champ announced his next title defense will be in the United Arab Emirates.

"See you in UAE for my next fight. #TeamPacquiao" he tweeted, appearing to scupper reports he would next fight Australia's Jeff Horn in Brisbane in April.

Pacquiao then posted a poll on his official Twitter feed asking his 108,000 followers to choose either Horn, Terence Crawford, Amir Khan or Kell Brook as his next opponent in the UAE.

The poll had received more than 10,000 votes by Monday morning.

A spokesman for Pacquiao said the eight-time world champion was to meet his manager Michael Koncz later on Monday and a statement about his next fight would be issued this week.

Promoter Bob Arum has been widely quoted in international media as saying that Pacquiao would be getting into the ring with the unbeaten Horn in April, and Australian officials said they were in negotiations to host the bout.

But Pacquiao, 38, posted on his social-media accounts that he instead would be fighting in the Middle East and seemed to indicate that while his opponent could still be Horn it could also be one of three other ranked contenders - American Crawford or Britons Khan or Brook.

Reports of a bout between Pacquiao and Horn began circulating last month, but the Filipino southpaw said contracts had not been signed.

"We are still negotiating about that. Nothing is really final, the date, who is the opponent. There are a lot of offers from other countries," Pacquiao said last month.

Pacquiao (69-6-2, 38 KOs) announced a brief retirement last year but made a successful comeback against Jessie Vargas in Las Vegas in November, saying he still "felt like a youngster".

The boxing legend initially said he was retiring to focus on his new role as Philippine senator after winning elections last year on the back of his sporting fame.