Manny Pacquiao’s aspirations of fighting in the Olympics were dashed yesterday, but now his coach has revealed a surprise prospective opponent for his return to the ring.
The legendary Filipino fighter Manny Pacquiao, a multi-weight world champion, had stated his intention to compete in the Olympics in Paris, but it was recently revealed that the 40-year-old age barrier will not be lifted.
He hasn’t competed since 2021, when he lost a 12-round points fight in Las Vegas to Yordenis Ugas, over two years after he had a significant victory over Keith Thurman.
The Pac-Man’s fitness and conditioning coach, Justin Fortune, has now shared his thoughts on who he would like to see him play against if he makes a comeback, in an interview with Lucky Block Casino.
“I would want to see Pacquiao make a comeback against Crawford since that fight has a huge financial incentive and is, coincidentally, a 50-50 draw. I don’t want to see Pacquiao-Mayweather 2; it would have been an amazing bout a year or two after the first one when it was still fresh in people’s memories.
Manny has a 50% chance of winning as he can still run like a freak and getting in shape wouldn’t take much. He may have slowed down a little, but he is still twice as fast as everyone else. He still possesses the authority that was given to him by God
“Mayweather may be the best, but he’s getting older. I’d prefer Manny to return and prove himself against a current world champion like Crawford. Manny has never ducked anyone and has always fought the best.”
The 45-year-old veteran, he continued, wouldn’t have any issues with fitness, even though Crawford might not be all that interested in facing Pacquiao.
It wouldn’t be difficult to get him back into condition; all we’d need to do is focus on improving his speed and explosiveness. It wouldn’t be difficult to get him back into shape because he’s constantly in shape and used to arriving at camp half-formed.
He was addicted to the gym. In eight weeks, I could get him back in shape for Crawford. Given his age, we’ll need to know when to press him and when to back off. To keep from tiring him out, we would have to back off.
“Manny will decide on the spur of the moment if he returns; he might wake up and decide he wants to fight in eight weeks.”
Although Pacquiao has always overcome the odds during his illustrious career, this looks like a huge order for him.
