PacMan's return: Manny Pacquiao unretires to take a shot at boxing history

Manny Pacquiao, left, poses with WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios during a news conference at MGM Grand Wednesday, July 16, 2025. Tom Brown, president of TGB Promotions, looks on at center. Pacquiao is scheduled to challenge Barrios for the title at MGM Grand Garden Arena on Saturday. Photo by: Steve Marcus

Like virtually all the fighters in his generation, WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios grew up watching and drawing inspiration from Manny Pacquiao.

Unlike some of the 30-year-old’s slightly older peers, he “never pictured” actually facing the now 46-year-old Pacquiao. The 16-year age gap made it feel unrealistic, especially with Barrios’ career only starting to take off right as Pacquiao’s was fizzling out.

Hence Barrios’ shock and confusion when he first got a call earlier this year that Pacquiao was planning to exercise his right as a former champion to come out of retirement and request a title fight.

“I wasn’t sure whether to take it as respect or disrespect, because he wanted me,” Barrios said recently at an open workout at the local Pound 4 Pound Gym. “But regardless, I’m the champion for a reason and I’m going to show why.”

The bout Barrios (29-2-1, 18 KOs) never saw coming, and undeniably now the biggest of his career in terms of interest, commences Saturday, July 19 at MGM Grand Garden Arena when Pacquiao (62-8-2, 39 KOs) challenges for his belt.

The welterweight championship matchup headlines a Premier Boxing Champions pay-per-view card streaming on Prime Video.

It marks the first time Pacquiao has fought in nearly four years as the legendary, record-breaking former eight weight-class champion retired following a unanimous-decision loss to Yordenis Ugas in August 2021 at T-Mobile Arena.

“It wasn’t a good feeling because I had it in my heart and my mind that I can still fight,” Pacquiao said at an open workout of his own in Los Angeles. “I’ve always known that I could still work hard and dedicate myself and focus on training. I’ve rested and now I’m back.”

Perhaps the idea of meeting Pacquiao shouldn’t have been so far-fetched to Barrios, considering he elevated to champion—and won his second major title—by taking the belt off Ugas in September 2023. Barrios battered Ugas to claim a unanimous decision on the undercard of the Canelo vs. Charlo event at T-Mobile Arena.

But there were no signs of Pacquiao mulling a return back then, and it seemed to become less likely in December 2024 when he was elected into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

In reality, Pacquiao has indicated that honor ended up making him hungrier for a comeback, as the chance to become the first Hall of Famer to win a world title appealed to him.

“This fight is very important to me because it’s history,” Pacquiao said.

A win would also make Pacquiao the oldest welterweight champion in boxing history, breaking his own record set in July 2019 when he won a split decision over Keith Thurman at MGM.

Anyone who questions Pacquiao’s chances against Barrios based on the pair’s divergent fates against Ugas must on the contrary grapple with how they each fared against Thurman. Unlike Pacquiao, Barrios couldn’t solve Thurman in a unanimous-decision loss in February 2022 at Michelob Ultra Arena.

Pacquiao has expressed belief that his late-career triumph over Thurman was more telling than his disappointment against Ugas, who beat him on 11 days’ notice.

“I had a lot of distractions and problems before the Yordenis Ugas fight,” Pacquiao said. “But right now, I’m 100% and there are no distractions. I’m just training and completely focused on the fight.”

Chief among those distractions were Pacquiao’s political career in his native Philippines, which included a failed run at the presidency in 2022. His six-year term as a senator ended the same year and Pacquiao said he began longing to return to competition even more with the extra time—often sneaking away into the boxing gym he kept in his home to quietly train.

Pacquiao doesn’t anticipate his comeback being a one-off as he estimated he had “two or three fights left,” or “another couple years.” But the San Antonio native Barrios will have something to say about that and has no reservations about ending Pacquiao’s second act early.

“I have nothing but respect for him outside the ring,” Barrios said. “But inside the ring, he’s just another man who’s trying to take what’s mine.”

This story originally appeared in Las Vegas Weekly.