Dubai: The saga surrounding Manny Pacquiao’s next fight continued on Monday as the Filipino eight-division world boxing champion ran a poll on Twitter asking fans who they wanted him to fight next in the UAE.

The four options were, Amir Khan, Jeff Horn, Terence Crawford and Kell Brook, with the 30-year-old British-Pakistani Khan coming out as a resounding favourite.

Pacquiao, aged 38, had initially been pencilled in to fight Horn in Brisbane, Australia on April 23.

However, on Saturday, Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz held a press conference in Abu Dhabi to announce that Pacquiao’s next fight would instead be taking place in the UAE.

Pacquiao appeared to confirm this on Sunday when he posted: ‘See you in UAE for my next fight,’ across all his social media accounts.

However, Horn’s promoter Dean Lonergan denied there had been a change in plan and said he was still close to closing a deal with Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum to stage the fight in Brisbane on April 23. Lonergan added that only Arum had the authority to represent Pacquiao.

Ominously there has been no word from Arum, but there has also been no confirmation on a date or venue for any supposed UAE fight either.

Al Afaq Tourism were announced as the event organisers for the UAE fight in Koncz’ press conference, but no one from any local venue or sports authority knows anything about any plan to stage a fight in the UAE, and Pacquiao’s camp have left it saying only that more details would follow.

Koncz suggested in his press conference that it was up to Pacquiao and not Arum to decide on the location and opponent for his next fight.

And while at first it seemed that the opponent would still be Horn and that only the location would change, Pacquiao’s latest tweet, polling fans on who they thought his next opponent should be, makes it sound like the prospect of fighting Horn is becoming less and less likely.

In the poll Horn was the fighter that fans least wanted to see Pacquiao face out of the four options, and even Pacquiao has previously said he had never heard of the Australian.

If they do fight, Horn would be Pacquiao’s first opponent in 10 years that hasn’t been a current or former world champion, marking a steep decline in stock value for the Filipino, who only 22 months ago fought Floyd Mayweather Junior in a Las Vegas mega-fight, which he lost on points.

It now seems like Pacquiao is trying to back out of negotiations with Horn or at least use the speculation of a supposed UAE fight to bluff and wrangle more money out of Australia.

Without a confirmed and interested UAE financial backer however, it doesn’t look as though the UAE will stage that fight.

The prospect of fighting Khan might change things though. The two were sparring partners at Freddie Roaches’ Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, USA, with conflicting reports over which fighter used to come off better in training.

For some reason they’ve always avoided meeting one another in the ring for real, and while Pacquiao’s camp have maintained it is because Khan is no match for Pacquiao, Khan suggests it’s because Pacquiao knows he would lose.

Either way, it’s the fight that Pacquiao’s fans most want to see in the UAE and with large Filipino, British and Pakistani expatriate populations it would also make the most sense. That said, several claims of big fights being held in the UAE have never materialised.

Poll:

As of Monday evening from over 28,000 fans polled:

Who do you want me (Pacquiao) to fight next in the UAE?

Amir Khan 48%

Jeff Horn 5%

Terence Crawford 20%

Kell Brook 26%