Manny Pacquiao will return to the ring again in 2023, as he announced a one-bout deal with Japanese MMA company RIZIN at their New Year’s Eve event.
Pacquiao will be doing an exhibition, which he’s said will likely come in the summer. The 44-year-old Filipino legend recently had an exhibition with DK Yoo. He expects to face an MMA fighter.
RIZIN has done a pair of exhibition bouts featuring Floyd Mayweather, and Pacquiao was present for the last one in September, where Mayweather knocked out Mikuru Asakura, so this isn’t an unexpected bit of news or anything.
Pacquiao does say he will not be facing Mayweather, though he is still interested in doing that at some point, and RIZIN is somewhere that it could conceivably happen, what with the massive amount of money it would take to even possibly secure both legendary fighters.
Pacquiao’s last real boxing match came in Aug. 2021, when he was beaten by Yordenis Ugas, and his last win came in 2019 against Keith Thurman.