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Manila - Manny Pacquiao has rekindled hopes for a dream fight with Floyd Mayweather after agreeing to a tough drug-test demand by his only serious rival for the title of the world's best pound-for pound boxer.
Negotiations for the bout fell through earlier this year when the American Mayweather insisted on Olympic-style random drug testing, which the Filipino seven-time world champion rejected as too intrusive.
But Pacquiao, fresh from winning a seat in the Philippine Congress, told local television network ABS-CBN he was now ready to agree to the blood tests, ABS-CBN said on its website.
"I have agreed to it, but they should not draw too much blood. They should only take what is necessary for the drug test," Pacquiao, who has said he does not like letting blood close to his fights, told the station.
"Fourteen days," Pacquiao added, stating the time limit for blood to be taken before the fight.
In the run-up to the aborted March bout, Mayweather called for repeated blood testing up to the day of the fight. Pacquiao, who has never failed a doping test, wanted a 30-day cut-off.
Mayweather later said he agreed to a 14-day cut-off but that Pacquiao would not accept it.
The two rivals signed up to fight other opponents, Pacquiao beating Ghana's Joshua Clottey and Mayweather defeating Shane Mosley.
Pacquiao, the reigning World Boxing Organisation welterweight champion, told ABS-CBN he wanted to find out whether the anti-doping controversy was the real reason Mayweather had refused to fight him in March.
"So he will no longer have a reason (not to fight)," Pacquiao said. "Let's see if that is really the reason," he added.
Pacquiao said he had earlier rejected Mayweather's demands because they were not required by professional boxing rules. Fighters should not meddle, he added.
"I'm a boxer, so why should I interfere with the work of the commission. That's the reason commissions are there, so they can set the rules."
US promoter Bob Arum told the Manila Standard newspaper earlier this month the clash, which would likely generate one of the biggest purses and television audiences in boxing history, could take place on November 13 in Texas or Las Vegas.
