Manny Pacquiao plans to end his retirement from boxing at 46 and is set to fight Mario Barrios July 19 in Las Vegas for the WBC welterweight championship, according to an ESPN report.
Pacquiao last fought in 2021, when he lost to Yordenis Ugas by unanimous decision.
Since then, he has spent time focused on his political career in the Philippines, where he has served as a senator and made an unsuccessful run for the presidency in 2022. Subsequently, rumblings of a possible return to the boxing ring had grown.
Boxing’s only eight-division world champion, Pacquiao has beaten the likes of Shane Mosley, Miguel Cotto and Erik Morales.
He lost to Floyd Mayweather Jr. by unanimous decision in 2015, when the two boxers combined to produce an estimated $400 million in pay-per-view buys – believed to be the biggest take in the sport’s history.