In a somewhat unsurprising announcement, Filipino icon and eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao has given the green light to begin planning for an in-ring return, per Bryan Armen Graham of the Guardian.
Pac-Man defeated Timothy Bradley in the rubber match of their trilogy in April before announcing his intention to retire from the sport. His team will now begin the process of sifting through potential opponents and finalizing a date and site.
He was recently elected to the senate in his native Philippines and will need to make sure any fight plans won’t interfere with his official responsibilities at home.
A fight date of October 15 had been floated recently, but Pacquiao’s promoter, Bob Arum, tells Graham that date is out because it’s too close to the time frame for discussion and debate about the Filipino national budget.
Pacquiao’s return was predictable, given his last fight was somewhat of a dud and the allure of the ring is very hard to resist.
Let’s take a shot at ranking the best possible opponents for his return according to how much sense the bout makes both in terms of business and competitiveness, and how excited fight fans are likely to get about the event.
Floyd Mayweather Jr.
You simply cannot discuss the possibility of a Pacquiao comeback without at least addressing the gigantic elephant sitting right smack in the middle of the room.
We get it.
You’re sick of reading about this topic, and we’re sick of writing about it.
But it needs to be addressed, so here it goes.
Pacquiao faced Floyd Mayweather Jr. a bit over a year ago in a fight that boxing fans had demanded for nearly a decade. The fight broke every single revenue record in the sport by a large margin. As an event (and by that we mean a money maker), it was a smashing success.
As a fight, however, the word “disappointment” doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface.
Fans felt bamboozled by an underwhelming Mayweather victory, and subsequent announcements by the Pacquiao camp informed the public that the fighter entered the ring as damaged goods with a bum shoulder.
Per Graham, Arum says he briefly discussed Mayweather’s name with boxing manager Al Haymon, but the undefeated former pound-for-pound king doesn’t intend to fight this year and may never fight again. If he does, you can be sure Pacquiao’s name will, at the very least, be in the mix.
Sure, the first fight was a bust, but it generated a half-billion dollars.
That bears repeating.
A half-billion dollars.
A rematch won’t approach that number, but there isn’t a guy out there who either man could fight who would put more coin in their pocket. That means this fight always remains a possibility.
Canelo Alvarez
Canelo Alvarez should be fighting Gennady Golovkin in the fall. But someone in his camp, Oscar De La Hoya or whoever, has decided the best course for boxing’s new face is to immediately begin his reign by angering the fans and attaching a ducker label to his name.
But that’s an argument for another day.
Canelo is due to challenge Liam Smith for the WBO Junior Middleweight Championship on September 10 on HBO pay-per-view, beginning the process of gradually acclimating to the middleweight division by moving down in weight.
If you follow that train of thought, then Pacquiao seems to be a perfectly logical choice for a December fight, which is when the cinnamon-haired star is due to fight next, assuming he doesn’t get upset by Smith.
It would do absolutely nothing for Canelo’s ability to eventually move up and face Golovkin, since it’s unclear at what weight the Filipino and Mexican stars would meet (though the concept of a catch or “Caneloweight” could be appropriate here) but that it certainly wouldn’t be 160 pounds.
Fans, already jaded, probably wouldn’t be very happy if Canelo chose to face Pacquiao, and thus move further away from the fight they really want. But it’d be a hard decision to argue against from a business perspective for both men.
Terence Crawford-Viktor Postol Winner
Terence Crawford meets Viktor Postol in a 140-pound unification bout on HBO PPV July 23.
That’s a high-level matchup between the two best junior welterweights in the world. Unfortunately, not a lot of eyes will be on the fight because a shrinking boxing budget at HBO necessitated placing the two budding stars—but unproven draws—on PPV rather than the network.
Crawford, like Khan and Bradley, was in contention to land Pacquiao’s April fight but not selected. He probably didn’t miss by much and would’ve been a welcome choice rather than a show boxing fans had seen (and not enjoyed) twice before.
The Omaha, Nebraska, native is penned as one of the sport’s brightest young stars. A win over a guy like Pacquiao would go a long way to consolidate his position as one of the guys who could bring the fight game into the next era.
It could be the last hurrah for an all-time great or a passing-the-torch moment.
Postol wasn’t really a blip on the radar screens of most hardcore fans before he surprisingly knocked out Matthysse in one of 2015’s bigger upsets. He’s probably not there yet in the name-recognition department, but beating Crawford would solve that problem.
Most feel this is a genuine 50-50 fight, and the winner would warrant some serious consideration for an assignment against Pacquiao.
Adrien Broner
Arum told Graham that Broner priced himself out of being Pacquiao’s next foe, but we’re not ready to buy that just yet. The Problem has tons of problems—both inside the ring and out—but, love him or hate him, you have to acknowledge he does make for a pretty compelling figure.
Broner is the former protege—turned rival—of Mayweather and does not shy from controversy.
In fact, it seems that he actively seeks it out and doesn’t particularly seem to care if the attention he’s receiving is good or bad.
His most recent fight is proof of him turning something profoundly negative into a professional boon.
Broner stopped overmatched Ashley Theophane—in a fight that only happened because of some gym grudge or jealousy that spilled over into the professional ranks—in April. He did it with a pair of warrants out for his arrest in Ohio.
Oh, and that fight was the highest rated Premier Boxing Champions broadcast on Spike TV since the program’s inception. Granted, that wasn’t all that long ago, but it paints the picture of a fighter who can put butts in the seats and eyes on the screen.
And that’s exactly why he makes perfect sense for Pacquiao.
Pacquiao-Bradley III was a colossal bust at the PPV box office.
“Terrible,” was how Arum described the approximately 400-500,000 PPV buys, per Dan Rafael.
A Pacquiao-Broner PPV is fresh, the opponent is brash and would carry his own weight promoting, and it gives people a reason to invest.
