Manny Pacquiao is set to return at the age of 46 against world champion Mario Barrios.
Manny Pacquiao has not won for six years, and hasn’t fought at all in the last four outside of a couple exhibition bouts, and yet, at the age of 46, his legendary status has carried him directly to a world title shot against Mario Barrios.
Pacquiao, now 62-8-2 after his unsuccessful comeback attempt against Yordenis Ugas, who beat Terence Crawford as an amateur in 2021, hopes to prove he still has it in a fight that will top a card filled with interesting fights, one of which features Gervonta Davis‘ toughest opponent.
Isaac Cruz will rematch his bitter rival on Manny Pacquiao undercard
In 2021, a relatively unknown Mexican fighter by the name of Isaac Cruz stepped in to face Tank Davis after Rolly Romero withdrew.
Cruz, who was once homeless, gave Tank more trouble than he bargained for, taking him the 12-round distance for the first time in his career.
Cruz fell short, but was one round away on two scorecards from a draw, making it the closest fight Davis had ever had, and it remains the closest fight Davis has ever won. The scores read 115-113, 115-113, 116-112.
Cruz defeated Yuriorkis Gamboa in his next fight, and has since won a world title against Romero, and lost it to Jose Valenzeula.
In his last fight, he won a clear unanimous decision over then 23-2-2 Angel Fierro. He is set to rematch Fierro on the undercard of Pacquiao vs Barrios.
An even bigger rematch also lands on the Pacquiao vs Barrios undercard
Cruz vs Fierro 2 is not the only rematch on the card, as the co-main event will pit Sebastian Fundora and Tim Tszyu against one another for the second time.
In their first encounter, Tszyu was unlucky to sustain a huge cut early on in the fight, impairing his vision and causing him to drop a split decision loss to Fundora, losing his world title.
He has since challenged for the IBF world title, but was flattened in three rounds by Bakhram Murtazaliev, who was called out by Ilia Topuria of the UFC. He beat Joey Spencer by fourth-round TKO in his last fight.
Fundora has fought just once since the Tszyu fight, beating Chordale Booker by fourth-round TKO.