Manny ‘Pacman’ Pacquiao will be making his comeback against Mario Barrios for the WBC welterweight championship on July 19th in Las Vegas, Nevada. Pacquiao has been out of boxing for nearly four years but will jump right into a title shot. The last time that we saw Pacquiao in the ring was against Yordenis Ugas where he lost a unanimous decision. Shortly after he announced his retirement, boxing fans immediately wondered how long his retirement would actually last for.
Breaking: Boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao will end his nearly four-year retirement to face Mario Barrios for the WBC welterweight championship on July 19 in Las Vegas, sources confirmed to Andreas Hale on Thursday. pic.twitter.com/06F42uztRb
— ESPN Ringside (@ESPNRingside) May 8, 2025
Pacquiao is newly elected into Boxing’s International Hall of Fame that takes place in June. Not to mention that he’s still fully involved in politics in the Philippines. He’s making another run for Senator, a position that he held from 2016-2022. The man that he’ll be facing last fought on the Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul card. On that night he defeated Abel Ramos for the interim WBC welterweight championship. He was later elevated to full time champion when Terance Crawford moved up to 154.
At 46 years old, Manny Pacquiao who’s boxing only eight division champion is trying to throw his hate into a young mans game. There’s still one big name in the division and that is Jaron ‘Boots’ Innis. That is probably as close to a big money fight that he could have at welterweight as Boots is the only known name champion in that division. I’m sure that Brian Norman Jr. would love to fight Pacquiao, the legend’s name on your resume would be big for the up and coming 24 year old WBO welterweight champion. But when it comes to money, this fight probably won’t happen.
Unless Pacquiao decides that he wants to try to unify the division by being the undisputed champion. Either way it’s fun to speculate what can become of a new title reign for him but he’s going to have to take care of business in July for that to happen.
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