Manny Pacquiao didn’t think twice when the offer to fight Errol Spence came.
Despite the dangers of battling a younger, fresher and powerful foe, Pacquiao decided yesterday to live up to his billing as someone who doesn’t back away from a major challenge by signing up to face Spence on 21 August in Las Vegas.
The news of the fight came just before sunrise in the Philippines and both Pacquiao and Spence took to social media to make the announcement before it became viral.
Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions (PBC), which has Pacquiao and Spence under its umbrella of talents, likewise posted a poster of the bout on social media.
By the time Pacquiao enters the ring against Spence, he would be more than two years removed from his last fight, a huge win over erstwhile-unbeaten Keith Thurman in July 2019.
The announcement was so sudden that fight fans were surprised that the dangerous Spence would be the opponent and not Mikey Garcia, the slow-moving slugger who was tailor-made for the Filipino legend.
What makes Pacquiao’s comeback so special is that Spence will be putting his twin titles — the World Boxing Council (WBC) and International Boxing Federation (IBF) welterweight crowns — on the line in the matchup that will either land at the MGM Grand or the newly-built 65,000-seater Allegiant Stadium.
“The contract was signed just this morning,” said Pacquiao lawyer Tom Falgui, who joined hands with MP Promotions chief Sean Gibbons in getting a deal in place after negotiations went back and forth for weeks amid competition from Audie Attar’s Paradigm Sports Management.
Attar was also angling to have Pacquiao meet Garcia in Dubai and his group could end up resorting to legal action to stop PBC from staging the Spence showdown.
