- Manny Pacquiao expressed his intention to face current world champions after exhibition match
- The Filipino boxing legend claims Floyd Mayweather is still ducking him
A year after officially retiring from professional boxing, Manny Pacquiao is following in on the footsteps of his fellow aging fighters and making his exhibition match debut this Saturday against Korean YouTuber DK Yoo.
Ahead of his ring return, “Pac-Man” addressed a few interesting things in pro boxing, primarily a potential title fights with WBO welterweight champ Terence Crawford and IBF, WBA, and WBC welterweight champ Errol Spence, and a rematch with Floyd Mayweather.
Bud and The Truth are under the radar
Speaking to Fighthype.com, Pacquiao confirms his intention to make this exhibition match as sort of his launch pad to a pro boxing comeback. The world’s only eight-division titlist is open to picking up where he left off and rekindle the botched title fights with either Crawford or Spence.
“Of course, I can fight Terence Crawford or Spence…I’m eager to fight with them…to test them, to see if they’re really a champion,” Pacquiao said. “Because I’ve been fighting a lot of boxers at 147, 140, 135, I’ve been fighting all of the greatest boxers in the world. So, I want to test them.”
“I’m still here. Even though I was retired for more than a year but I keep on working and playing basketball, workout almost every day,” he added.
Floyd is still ducking
It can be recalled that Pacquiao made an appearance on Mayweather’s last exhibition match and as expected, talks of a rematch between the two legendary boxers emerged once again. Mayweather beat Pacquiao in their blockbuster match in 2015, but according to “Pac-Man,” fans are still yearning for a rematch to see if “Money” is really the better fighter.
Pacquiao insisted he has always been down to run it back but Mayweather is still “scared to death.”
“That’s possible but it depends on him [Mayweather] because I am willing to have a rematch with him [in] a real fight, not an exhibition. We need to answer those questions in the minds of the fans,” Pacquiao pointed out.
“Until now they are asking when is the rematch with Mayweather, I tell themo ‘no, I don’t think he’ll fight again. He’s scared to death to have a rematch with me’…He’s scared to death. That’s my analysis with him. He don’t want to fight me again,” he stressed.
Pacquiao’s case for a fight with Crawford, Spence or Mayweather is expected to have an answer once people see how Pacquiao will perform in his boxing return.
As it stands, the Filipino legend has not tasted a victory since 2019 when he dominated Keith Thurman for the WBA Super Welterweight title. He was supposed to take on Spence but the latter was replaced by Yordenis Ugas due to an eye injury. Pacquiao then suffered an upset unanimous decision loss to Ugas and was prompted to call it a career.
Pacquiao is facing a much bigger and taller DK Yoo, who stands at 5-foot-10 and claims to have known 15 different martial arts. The match begins at 10 p.m. ET on Fite.
