The 42-year-old Filipino boxing legend Manny “Pac-Man” Pacquiao is ready to head out to the United States to begin training for his upcoming August 21st fight with undefeated WBC, IBF unified welterweight champion Errol “The Truth” Spence Jr. in Las Vegas.
Pacquiao who is currently a Senator in the Philippines hasn’t fought in two years and has many in the boxing establishment worried that his age will finally catch up to him against the 31-year-old Spence.
He had a historical performance against undefeated WBA champion Keith “One Time” Thurman on July 2019, in which he dropped the hard hitting Thurman in the first round and hurt him to the body in the tenth eventually winning the WBA title on the scorecards making him the oldest welterweight champion in history at the age of 40.
Pacquiao has since been stripped of his WBA title due to inactivity and given the title of champion in recess, the WBA is still pondering on whether or not they will reinstate Pacquiao back to super champion status for his unification fight with Spence.
President of the WBC, Mauricio Sulaiman, is happy to have a legend like Pacquiao fighting for the WBC title and gives nothing but praise to the 8-divison world champion in an interview with Behind The Gloves.
“Manny Pacquiao is a legendary champion, a hall of famer for certain,” Sulaiman told Behind The Gloves. “He is a great influence for the Philippines as a Senator also to the world. He is defying time once again. He’s been coming back to the sport and winning against champions like Thurman who was very solid, very competitive and people think that Pacquiao can do anything so we will see. He is timeless and he has the opportunity to win in any fight that he enters the ring into. He’s a proud member of the boxing community and he deserves the opportunity.
The WBC president also suggested that anyone who tries to discredit Manny Pacquiao by hinting that he is doping (steroids, performance enhancing drugs) is irresponsible because the Filipino boxing legend has been tested for PEDs over 100 times.
“Well the promoter will be contracting VADA for the clean boxing program and Manny Pacquiao has never had any issues with doping. He’s had more than 100 tests performed on him so I have absolutely no doubts and it is irresponsible for anyone to hint or try to discredit Manny Pacquiao of doping. I believe he is an asset to the sport, an asset to humanity and we fully support him and we think that this fight will be tremendous,” expressed Sulaiman.
