By: Sean Crose
It’s good to be a legendary fighter. Manny Pacquiao, the iconic former eight division champion, has been ranked the number five welterweight in the world by the World Boxing Council. The likely reason? That Pacquiao may well be coming out of retirement to face current WBC welterweight titlist Mario Barrios July 19th in Las Vegas. Although there supposedly won’t be an official press conference until the 20th of this month, Pacquiao’s talked about return was made more likely not only by the WBC’s ruling but also by the fact that Pacquiao recently lost an election in his Philippian homeland.
WBC honcho Mauricio Sulaiman has stated the following on social media: “Remember @SugarRayLeonard ? My father Jose Sulaiman and the WBC were criticized for making his fight vs Hagler @MannyPacquiao has been licensed by Nevada and passed all medicals and as legendary WBC champion has been approved to fight by our organization Let’s talk July 20.” If this fight does indeed happen, expect all the stops to be pulled out. Even though Pacquiao is currently 46 years of age and his last fight was a unanimous decision defeat at the gloved fists of Yordenis Ugas back in late summer 2021, his name still brings in attention and dollars.
And why wouldn’t it? Not only was Pacquiao one of the most well known and popular athletes in the world for close to a decade, he was an extraordinary fighter. An explosively aggressive pugilist with boundless energy, Pacquiao had a ring style that thrilled boxing fans and even those who were normally disinterested in the sweet science. His 2015 superfight with Floyd Mayweather broke viewership and earning records. And even though he lost that fight, Pacquiao continued to be one of the most popular figures in the sport. His 2019 victory of Keith Thurman was a late career hallmark moment.
The fight with Thurman went down close to six years ago, however. Pacquiao was aging then. How much older will he seem should he decide to go through with a bout with Barrios this summer? Even though the skilled Barrios isn’t considered to be among the upper echelon of contemporary fighters, he’ll still be a full sixteen years younger than Pacquiao if the two men do indeed throw down. What’s more, Barrios has only lost to Gervonta Davis and Keith Thurman, two high level fighters who were much younger when they faced Barrios than Pacquiao could hope to be. Still, this is Pacquiao, we’re talking about. In a sport where no one can be counted out, it’s wise to avoid writing this man off in particular – no matter how close to fifty he now is.
Here’s hoping no one gets hurt should this fight actually go down.
