By Rey Danseco

The return bout between Manny Pacquiao and Erik Morales on January 21 will most likely take place at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In an exclusive interview yesterday, Daren Libonati, director of the state-of-the-art sports and entertainment facility located on the campus of the University of Nevada, told to this writer that Bob Arum of Top Rank, promoter of the Pacquiao-Morales rematch, possess the right to stage a boxing event on the mentioned date.

But Libonati didn’t confirm or deny the feed from this writer that the top two-ranked contenders in the super featherweight division in World Boxing Council (WBC) might collide on the considered West's premier facilities.

“We are holding the dates of Jan 21, ‘06 with Top Rank at this time. We have not been told who the fighters will be,” Libonati said. “(But) We would love (to host) the (Pacquiao-Morales) rematch your referring to.”

The 19,522-seat capacity center for boxing and 18,776 for basketball was also the venue of Pacquiao’s younger brother, Bobby Pacquiao’s victorious bout against ex-IBF lightweight king Carlos Hernandez on Oct. 10 as chief support of the 4th round demolition revenge of Jose Luis Castillo against WBO-WBC lightweight boss Diego Corrales.

Libonati added that Arum also holds the date of November 12 for Vitali Klitschko’s second title defense of his WBC heavyweight title against former titleholder Hasim Rahman.

The Center is inaugurated on Dec. 16, 1983 and named for two prominent Las Vegas bankers, E. Parry Thomas and Jerome Mack, who established the original land foundation and donated $500,000 for feasibility studies and the initial architectural renderings.

The winner in the scheduled 12-round fight will get a shot against reigning WBC super featherweight champ Marco Antonio Barrera, who Pacquiao easily defeated in their featherweight match on Nov. 15, 2003 and winner of two of the three bouts against Morales.

Arum remains mum on the exact venue of the fight that will be televised on free television RPN Channel 9 in the Philippines through Solar Sports