Manny Pacquiao is hoping to roll back the years to put on a dominant display against Mario Barrios on July 19th.
Manny Pacquiao vs Mario Barrios will top 2025’s biggest night of boxing on July 19th, on a night that also features Daniel Dubois vs Oleksandr Usyk, Diego Pacheco vs Trevor McCumby, and Kevin Lerena vs Lawrence Okolie.
A win over Barrios will make Pacquiao the oldest welterweight world champion yet again, with Pac Man having first set the record in 2019 with a win over Keith Thurman.
Many, however, believe Pacquiao is far from his past knockout-artist self, and may struggle with the youth of Barrios, who was born after Pacquiao turned pro.
Pacquiao boasts 39 KOs to his 62 wins, with the quickest of them all coming against one unfortunate opponent.
Manny Pacquiao decimated 0-5 Wook Ki Lee in 64 seconds
In 1997, Pacquiao was coming off a five-fight knockout streak with the last three KOs coming in the first or second round, when he faced Wook Ki Lee.
Lee had no wins on his record, and seems to be a bizarre choice of opponent for 17-1 Pacquiao, whose fight prior came against a 20-7 opponent, and fight after came against a 10-5 one.
The fight came just one month after his last, and was likely Pacquiao’s way of keeping busy against lackluster opposition.
Lee was 0-5-1, and, as expected, did not last long against Pacquiao, who scored his quickest knockout yet in just 64 seconds.
Pac Man, whose brother had a five-fight rivalry, had scored his first first-round knockout in his previous fight, when he stopped Mike Luna in 116 seconds.
Lee only fought once more after that, and was blitzed in the opening round again by a rising prospect. He retired with a record of 0-7-1.
Manny Pacquiao and Mario Barrios have TWO common opponents
Ahead of their fight, the debate has raged on over whether Pacquiao’s wealth of experience is enough to defeat Barrios’ youth in their fight.
The pair do have two common opponents, though with wildly different performances, cannot tell us who will win.
Below is each common opponent, and how Pacquiao and Barrios fared against them.
| Manny Pacquiao | Mario Barrios | |
| Yordenis Ugas | LOSS – UD (2021) | WIN – UD (2023) |
| Keith Thurman | WIN – SD (2019) | LOSS – UD (2022) |