{"id":798289,"date":"2026-10-10T17:20:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T17:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/798289\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T17:20:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T17:20:14","slug":"retired-world-champion-says-hes-happy-with-the-numbers-for-comeback-fight-against-manny-pacquiao","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/798289\/","title":{"rendered":"Retired world champion says he’s ‘happy with the numbers’ for comeback fight against Manny Pacquiao"},"content":{"rendered":"

While unlikely to feature on the undercard of Tyson Fury<\/a> vs Anthony Joshua<\/a>, Manny Pacquiao<\/a> could nonetheless return against a former two-time world champion.<\/p>\n

Initially, it was reported that the Filipino may end up colliding with four-division world champion Shakur Stevenson at Cardiff\u2019s Principality Stadium on December 11.<\/p>\n

That, however, is no longer considered a possibility as Stevenson, instead, is targeting a showdown with Devin Haney for later this year.<\/p>\n

As for Pacquiao, the 47-year-old has remained out of the ring since July 2025, when he ended a near four-year layoff and battled to a draw with then-WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The former eight-division world champion was then set to face Floyd Mayweather this past September, only for their rematch to be scuppered after legal issues.<\/p>\n

Now, though, Pacquiao is being linked to a potential clash with Amir Khan<\/a>, who was eager to face the Hall of Famer when they were both closer to their primes.<\/p>\n

And despite having not fought since his sixth-round stoppage defeat to Kell Brook in 2022<\/a>, the 39-year-old Khan has told Metro<\/a> that he is, indeed, in talks to face the legendary \u2018Pac Man\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are talks. There\u2019s a lot of interest. I\u2019ve seen numbers which I\u2019m happy with and I\u2019ve seen a location which I\u2019m happy with. Manny has come back to the same team that I\u2019m dealing with and said he would want something as well. Manny is happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khan went on to deny rumours of them fighting on the Fury-Joshua undercard, with the Olympic silver medallist saying their encounter would be likely to take place in 2027 if it happens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While unlikely to feature on the undercard of Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua, Manny Pacquiao could nonetheless return…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":798290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-798289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}