Boxing royalty kicked things off ahead of Tuesday’s game between the New York Yankees and Athletics.

Manny Pacquiao threw out the ceremonial first pitch at Yankee Stadium, which drew a thank you from the team:

Pacquiao, 47, is one of the best boxers of his generation with a 62-8-3 record that includes 39 knockouts. 

He retired in 2021, although he did return in July 2025 to fight Mario Barrios. The bout ended in a majority draw, but it got Pacquiao back in the ring before what could be a highly anticipated rematch of his 2015 fight against Floyd Mayweather.

In February, Netflix announced the two legends would face each other in September at the Sphere in Las Vegas:

However, Mayweather introduced some doubt to the situation last month.

“As of right now, we don’t know exactly where the fight is going to be at,” Mayweather said, per ESPN’s Andreas Hale. “We don’t know the location of the fight. The Sphere is one of the places that they talked about. So we don’t know if it’s a hundred percent going to be there. And this is not actually a fight. It’s an exhibition.”

It remains to be seen how the situation will unfold, but Pacquiao still has plenty of time to train.

He also has enough time to take a break from that training to throw out a first pitch in one of baseball’s most iconic locations.