{"id":881076,"date":"2026-09-05T15:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T15:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/881076\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T15:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T15:42:09","slug":"manny-pacquiao-targeting-unbeaten-american-star-for-fight-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/881076\/","title":{"rendered":"Manny Pacquiao targeting unbeaten American star for fight this year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Manny Pacquiao<\/a> is reportedly in advanced negotiations to return later this year, having not fought since his controversial draw with Mario Barrios in July 2025.<\/p>\n

Back then, the Filipino legend was returning from a near four-year layoff after losing his WBA welterweight title and getting unanimously outpointed by Yordenis Ugas.<\/p>\n

Against Barrios, however, Pacquiao came remarkably close to claiming the WBC strap<\/a> at 147lbs, with many believing that he should have emerged victorious.<\/p>\n

It is therefore unsurprising that the 47-year-old plans to extend his illustrious fighting career, despite much uncertainty surrounding his rematch with Floyd Mayweather Jr<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The two Hall of Famers were supposed to square off later this month, only for Mayweather\u2019s legal woes to rule him out of action.<\/p>\n

According to Manny Pacquiao Promotions president Jas Mathur, the American is now attempting to reschedule his exhibition match with Mike Tyson<\/a> for December, while remaining under contract to eventually honour his rematch with \u2018Pac Man\u2019.<\/p>\n

Until then, though, Boxing Scene are reporting that Pacquiao is lining up a potential fight this year against four-division world champion Shakur Stevenson<\/a>, who has not fought since his unanimous decision victory over Teofimo Lopez in January.<\/p>\n

Having claimed the WBO super-lightweight title in dominant fashion, the American subsequently inked a deal with Dana White and is set to make his Zuffa Boxing debut later this year.<\/p>\n

If he is to face Pacquiao, then Stevenson would likely need to jump up to 147lbs, yet nothing has been confirmed regarding a date or location for their potential showdown.<\/p>\n

As for Pacquiao, it would seem that the eight-division world champion is hanging around just long enough to secure his shot at revenge against Mayweather, who won their 2015 encounter by unanimous decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manny Pacquiao is reportedly in advanced negotiations to return later this year, having not fought since his controversial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":881077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-881076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881076","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=881076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/881077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}