44-year-old Manny Pacquiao may not be done in the ring after all, as adviser Sean Gibbons says Pacquiao is “ready to rumble” in a potential fight with Conor Benn, who is interested in the idea.
Pacquiao had his last sanctioned fight in Aug. 2021, a clear 12-round decision loss to Yordenis Ugas. He announced his retirement about a month later. He’s done some exhibitions since, but they weren’t anything close to “live ammo” as a fight.
Benn, 26, has had major issues in the last several months, failing drug tests before a planned catchweight bout with Chris Eubank Jr last year, which scrapped that fight. Recently, the WBC “cleared” Benn of wrongdoing, basically, releasing a statement Benn wasn’t entirely happy about, releasing his own statement.
At any rate, the most likely outcome is that Benn (21-0, 14 KO) will soon be back in action, and Pacquiao (62-8-2, 39 KO) apparently is interested:
Biggest Fight of the year! Let’s Go!
— Conor Nigel Benn (@ConorNigel) March 2, 2023
Benn being interested is not a surprise, it would be by miles the biggest event and fight of his career, even if Pacquiao is a shadow of his former self. (And he is.)
On the Pacquiao side, you can probably get good money from this. He may have an issue with a Paradigm Sports lawsuit — which goes to trial today, in fact — as that company are vowing to “cut off” his ability to make money in the U.S., and their goal is to hamper his ability to make money fighting anywhere in the world.