MANILA, Philippines — Top Rank chief Bob Arum met with Manny Pacquiao just before the Hall of Fame promoter took a Las Vegas-bound flight Saturday afternoon and made a stunning revelation, stemming probably from a bold declaration by Floyd Mayweather Jr. that went viral on the Internet.

“Don’t say that,” Arum told the Bulletin when asked whether Mayweather is out of the picture as a potential opponent for late-May or early-June in Las Vegas.

Arum said he briefly met with Pacquiao “for about 30 minutes and got everything done,” stressing that the 33-year-old Pacquiao has made his intentions clear to him as to what he wants to do next.

In the running as Pacquiao foe are Miguel Cotto, Tim Bradley, Lamont Peterson and Juan Manuel Marquez and Arum will talk with one of these guys once it can be determined with finality that a fight with Mayweather cannot be salvaged.

Arum had dismissed Mayweather as an opponent for Pacquiao the past few days owing to several reasons but the unbeaten American fighter went on record on the Internet Saturday, saying the fight that he truly wants is against Pacquiao.

“I don’t want to fight anybody but him (Pacquiao). I don’t want to fight (Miguel) Cotto, not Canelo (Saul Alvarez) and I (am not) looking to fight (Juan Manuel) Marquez a second time,” Mayweather told fighthype.

“I’m not trying to fight (Robert) Guerrero. I fought a southpaw, I fought (Victor) Ortiz. Ortiz was a tune up preparing me for Pacquiao because I thought that fight was going to happen and it’s the fight I want to give the world,” said Mayweather, who knocked out Ortiz last September.

“I’m looking to fight Manny Pacquiao, why is he duckin’ and dodgin’ me?” said Mayweather.

Mayweather wants a May 5 date for a fight and the fact that Arum did not rule out Mayweather is a sign that something must have come up the past 24 hours.

Still, if a Mayweather fight doesn’t happen next, the 80-year-old Arum can still go to other attractive options.

Cotto of Puerto Rico looks like the frontrunner in the race to a lucrative Pacquiao payday, while running a close second is Tim Bradley. But not to be counted out are Marquez and Peterson.

Pacquiao had said a few days ago that he also craves for a Mayweather fight because it is the fight that the entire world wants to see, dismissing claims that he is afraid to bang bodies with the other claimant to the mythical title of pound-for-pound king.

Pacquiao, who scored a close win over Marquez the last time he fought in November 2011, said he is willing to share everything on a 50-50 basis with Mayweather.

In Hollywood, California, Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach said sung a similar tune.

Roach said a May 5 bout against Mayweather remains a possibility but that a later date in Dallas or Dubai would be a better option for the mega showdown.

The trainer also scoffed at Mayweather’s challenge to Pacquiao by writing on his social networking site Twitter: “Step up punk,” but said he welcomes the undefeated US boxer’s willingness to step in the ring with his Filipino dynamo in Las Vegas on May 5.

“We have been chasing this guy for two years and he receives a get out of jail card and now he wants to fight,” Roach said at his Wild Card Boxing Club on Friday (Saturday in Manila).

“Dallas would be the best place to put on that fight in the US because you could get 100,000 people in Cowboys Stadium but Dubai is the best moneywise.”

Roach said a group from Dubai is willing to pay huge sums so that the title fight can be staged in the United Arab Emirates.

“There were negotiations with people from Dubai. I met with a group of people who were negotiating with (Pacquiao’s financial adviser) Michael Koncz,” Roach said.