Manny Pacquiao is coming out of retirement and walking straight into a title fight at 46 years old.
Late Thursday night, ESPN’s Andreas Hale reported that Pacquiao, who is No. 23 in Sportico’s rankings of the highest-paid athletes of all-time, will return to the ring to face WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios in Las Vegas on July 19. Pacquiao is taking on this fight while campaigning to return to the Philippines senate.
The Filipino legend is reportedly taking advantage of a rule from the World Boxing Council allowing a retired former champion to request a title fight if he unretires. Due to his relatively advanced age and underwhelming showings in his most recent two fights, boxing fans and pundits have cried foul about his pending return.
Although he is skipping the line ahead of several younger and more active pugilists, event organizers are likely banking on his name and long history of thrilling fights to garner another huge gate in Vegas as well as pay-per-view buys.
Pacquiao has career earnings of $775 million when adjusted for inflation (non-adjusted earnings are $575 million, third among all combat sports athletes behind Floyd Mayweather Jr. (10th, $1.52 billion) and Mike Tyson (19th, $965 million).
However, the future Hall-of-Famer—he’ll be enshrined in June—was likely surpassed in career earnings on May 3 by Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who defeated William Scull in a much-maligned title defense in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Alvarez signed a four-year deal with Riyadh Season, the country’s sports and entertainment arm run by Turki Alalshikh, for a reported $400 million, and he is scheduled to face Terence “Bud” Crawford this September at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium in one of the most anticipated fights in recent memory.
At his peak in the late 2000s and early 2010s, Pacquiao earned at least $20 million per fight, while also earning a percentage of revenue from U.S. pay-per-view. Between 2005 and 2022, Pacquiao’s fights generated close to $1.3 billion from his 25 PPV fights for HBO, Showtime, Fox and Top Rank, his long-time promoter. His camp also controlled media rights to his fights in the Philippines.
Pacquiao’s biggest fight purse came in May 2015 against Mayweather in the “Fight of the Century.” Between the PPV fees, gate receipts (tickets were priced between $1,500 and $10,000), merchandise and sponsorships, Mayweather-Pacquiao was the first $600 million single-day event in sports history, even surpassing prior Super Bowls. The event itself was one-sided in Mayweather’s favor; Pacquiao lacked movement due to a later-reported torn rotator cuff. Getting the lower split of the event revenue, Pacquiao took home $125 million compared with Mayweather’s $240 million.
While not the same fighter in the back end of his illustrious career, Pacquiao still commanded hefty paydays. He took home between $17-20 million against Adrien Broner and less than $20 million in his July 2019 win over Keith Thurman. His last notable PPV draw, an upset loss to Yordenis Ugás in September 2021, woefully underdelivered. Yahoo! Sports reported that only 250,000 people bought the fight, but Pacquiao earned $18.75 million in defeat.
Pacquiao has never stayed out of the public view for long. While an active fighter, he was a member of the House of Representatives in the Philippines from 2010 to 2016 and joined the nation’s senate from 2016 until 2022. However, he had been criticized for a poor attendance record in office as he chased other pursuits in sports and entertainment.
ESPN reported that he won’t publicly announce his return to boxing until after the May 12 election in the Philippines. Pacquiao had unsuccessfully run for president in 2022, coming in a distant third behind winner Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
