It is beginning to look like Manny Pacquiao, the boxing great, will fight for the WBC welterweight title later this year, most likely in Las Vegas. Mario Barrios, who was elevated from interim champion to full WBC welterweight champion after Terence Crawford made it known he is going up in weight (to 154, where he will challenge Israil Madrimov for a belt in August), could face Pac-Man soon.
WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman told Sky Sports that he would give his blessing for a Pacquiao challenge of Barrios. The current WBC welterweight rankings show that Souleymane Cissokho is the current No. 1 contender. But Sulaiman says he would permit Pacquiao to get a shot at the belt in Barrios’ next fight.
Sulaiman says a Manny Pacquiao comeback at 45 would be “sensational.” Additionally, the WBC president said he feels Pacquiao “can beat any fighter or can be competitive with any fighter today.”
“Manny Pacquiao is timeless. He’s a legend,” Sulaiman said. “We have great precedent of former champions coming back as long as they pass successfully all the medical examinations. As a former champion and as a legend, he does have the possibility of fighting for the WBC championship. I do like the idea very much. I think Manny Pacquiao can beat any fighter or can be competitive with any fighter today. But to have him return to the WBC more than two decades after he won his first world championship, which was the WBC flyweight title, and then go all the way to welterweight in 2024 would be sensational.”
As much as Pacquiao fans would love to see him come back and make more history, giving us more excitement, there really is no way of knowing whether Manny can “beat any fighter or can be competitive with any fighter today.” In his last fight, which took place in the summer of 2021, Pacquiao was comprehensively beaten by Yordenis Ugas. Okay, Ugas’ tricky/awkward style may have had something to do with it, but Pacquiao looked a faded force compared to his brilliant days, or even in comparison to his earlier winning performance over Keith Thurman.
Pacquiao has kept himself in shape, and he is still fast and dynamic. But can Manny beat a man some 16 years his junior in Barrios? Is it fair that Pacquiao jumps the queue to get a shot? Sulaiman has given a Barrios-Pacquiao fight the green light, so now we have to wait and see if the two fighters and their teams can make a deal.
Can all-time great Pacquiao become a world champion at the age of 45?