“Not only boxing, but the world would be better off if every division had a Manny Pacquiao. We’d have peace in the Middle East and global warming would cool off.”
That was the tongue-in-cheek appraisal of Manny Pacquiao from HBO’s legendary boxing commentator Larry Merchant in 2006. By the time he made the remarks, Merchant had practically been converted into a disciple of the Filipino fighter.
Pacquaio, nicknamed ‘Pac-Man’, seemed to take the advice literally in the years that followed, winning world titles in a record eight weight classes. He also took Merchant at his word outside the ring, to varying degrees of success and failure.
It’s not to say self-belief is a bad thing; Pacquiao started life in poverty, selling cigarettes on the streets, only to become a global sports icon and one of the most famous people in the Philippines. In a career of 72 bouts, he won 62 and reportedly banked a nine-figure sum for his fight with Floyd Mayweather in 2015.
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All the same, the confidence that helped him achieve glory in the ring has led Pacquiao into some embarrassing side shows. He’s been the star of box-office flops and launched a music career that included strained and cringy performances on Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show. He also had a stint as player-coach of a basketball team in the Philippines. His most successful side hustle outside of boxing, though, has undoubtedly been politics.
Pacquiao’s political career was initially promising, due to his fame and charitable reputation. His successful campaigns for the house of representatives in 2010 and then the senate six years later proved that he had plenty of support from voters. This period wasn’t all cream and peaches, though. Critics at home lambasted him for missing senate sessions, as he continued to fight across the Pacific. Nike withdrew its sponsorship of Pacquiao in 2016 after he described people in same-sex relationships as “worse than animals”.
His boxing career started to slow up around that time too, with four losses between 2012 and 2017. His final fight came in 2021, a unanimous decision loss against Cuba’s Yordenis Ugás. With the presidential election the following year, Pacquiao retired from boxing to focus solely on politics. Four years on, he says he has retired from politics to focus solely on boxing.
For all his fame and popularity, Pacquiao never stood a chance in the presidential race, finishing third, 28 million votes behind the victorious Bongbong Marcos. On the campaign trail, Pacquiao criticised both Bongbong and his old ally, incumbent president Rodrigo Duterte, who was jailed and has since been transferred to the Hague for crimes against humanity. Pacquiao later joined Bongbong’s party for the 2025 senate election, but failed to regain his seat, a disaster that has left him totally adrift politically.
It has been 24 years since Pacquiao first appeared on the radar of most boxing fans. The year was 2001 and he comprehensively defeated the highly-rated junior featherweight champion Lehlo Ledwaba. Merchant was also on commentary duty that night and admitted: “I had never seen him, I frankly had never heard of him. But I’ve seen and heard of him now, and I want to see him again.”
In the following years, Pacquiao transformed from an athletic southpaw reliant on a powerful left cross, into a hard-punching speedster, with wonderful footwork and relentless combination punching. Even if his defence was shaky, in his prime years he stopped great fighters like Ricky Hatton, Oscar De La Hoya and Miguel Cotto. He sold tens of millions of pay-per-view subscriptions in the US along the way. It’s around 15 years since that period, but his name still holds weight in the sport.
From a promotional perspective, his opponent this Saturday, WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios (29-2-1) might as well be anyone, such is the difference in popularity between the two fighters. Barrios even said it was “cool to know he (Pacquiao) knew who I was”. With four recognised world titles on offer in every division, there’s usually at least one champion who could be seen as easy pickings. and At welterweight, that’s Barrios. And that’s exactly why he’s been chosen for the comeback fight.
Still, Barrios gave Ugás an absolute pasting in 2023 and has only lost twice, both to top-class fighters. He is also 16 years younger than Pacquiao and there is no such thing as an easy mark in boxing when you’re 46. That age disadvantage is highlighted further by the fact that Pacquiao was already the oldest welterweight champion in history four years ago, before the Ugás fight.
The wider problem is that Mayweather and Pacquiao remain the last two superstars in American boxing; which explains why Pacquiao has waltzed back into a world title shot immediately. Amazon Prime are showing the fight on pay-per-view at a price of $80 (€69), but even if they do good numbers it’s not a long-term solution. It’s just another fight where boxing seems to wake from its slumber, only to hit the snooze button right after.
It is 30 years ago this month since a 16-year-old Pacquiao recorded his first knockout victory in the ring. For comparison, the teenage sensation of that summer in Ireland was Jason Sherlock, who won the All-Ireland with Dublin aged 19. There’s not much chance of him pulling on a jersey now. That kind of thing only happens in the wild west of sport.
If Pacquiao gets badly beaten by Barrios, then it’s a sad ending for a truly great pugilist. There’s no reason to think that it would stop the ever-increasing frequency of freakshow fights either (see Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul). Barrios is decent, but has already proved to be below the top level, and someone else will be along to pick him off soon enough if Pac-Man can’t. On the other hand, if Pacquiao performs reasonably well, or even wins, then the truly elite fighters around that weight could start to circle, looking to put a legend on their CV and flat on his back.
WBC welterweight championship: Manny Pacquiao vs Mario Barrios, MGM Grand, Las Vegas, Sunday, 4am Irish time, Amazon Prime
