{"id":618282,"date":"2026-04-20T02:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T02:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/618282\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T02:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T02:21:10","slug":"manny-pacquiao-revisits-errol-spence-fight-that-never-happened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/618282\/","title":{"rendered":"Manny Pacquiao Revisits Errol Spence Fight That Never Happened"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=boxing247.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"660\" height=\"208\" alt=\"Add East Side Boxing as a preferred source on Google\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/google.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqKAgKIiJDQklTRXdnTWFnOEtEV0p2ZUdsdVp6STBOeTVqYjIwb0FBUAE?ceid=US:en&amp;oc=3&amp;hl=en-US&amp;gl=US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><br \/>\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"468\" height=\"128\" alt=\"Follow East Side Boxing on Google News\" style=\"height:100%; width:auto; display:block;\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/follow-google-news.png\"\/><br \/>\n  <\/a> <\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf course I wanted to fight him, because I know I can easily beat him,\u201d said Pacquiao to Inside The Ring.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[I would have beaten him] with speed. It\u2019s not about strength, or how strong the punch is. It\u2019s about skills and abilities in the ring and how you move. That\u2019s boxing. That\u2019s the secret to being an eight-division champion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pacquiao was 42 when the bout was first booked, while Spence was in his prime and held titles at welterweight. Many viewed the American as the clear favorite at the time after Pacquiao\u2019s long layoff during the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Saying he would have won \u201cwith ease\u201d is the most eye-rolling part. Spence was a unified champion in his absolute physical prime. Nobody, not even a peak Pacquiao, would have beaten that version of Spence \u201ceasily.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even if we look at the Spence who returned after that horrific 2019 Ferrari crash, he was still a physical powerhouse compared to a fading legend.<\/p>\n<p>By 2021, the size difference alone would have been a massive hurdle. Spence was a huge welterweight with a piston of a jab and a relentless body attack. Pacquiao, while an all-time great, was always a blown-up featherweight.<\/p>\n<p>If Ugas could keep Manny at the end of a long, straight right hand, imagine what Spence\u2019s southpaw jab would have done. It wasn\u2019t just a point-scoring tool; it was a power shot that set up his entire offense.<\/p>\n<p>Even if Spence was at 80% of his former self, that version still possessed the volume and strength to bully an older man. It\u2019s hard to imagine Manny\u2019s legs holding up under 12 rounds of Spence digging into his ribs.<\/p>\n<p>Legends often mistake their knowledge of the game for their ability to execute it. Manny knows how to beat a guy like Spence, but at 42, his nervous system wasn\u2019t taking orders from his brain at the same speed anymore.<\/p>\n<p>Fans don\u2019t buy Pacquiao\u2019s leg cramp excuse because we\u2019ve seen this movie before. When a fighter says their legs \u201cweren\u2019t there,\u201d it\u2019s usually just code for \u201cmy timing and athleticism have evaporated.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cOf course I wanted to fight him, because I know I can easily beat him,\u201d said Pacquiao to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618283,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-618282","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-boxing","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}