Terence Crawford is out a far as Manny Pacquiao’s next ring foe, while talk of a Pacquiao-Errol Spence fight has also been shot down by members of Team-Pacquiao. Now, if we can take the poster Manny’s business advisor Arnold Vegafria has uploaded on social media, it will be Pacquiao versus Mikey Garcia in Dubai – “soon.”
Vegafria uploaded a poster depicting Pacquiao and Garcia standing alongside each other, with Dubai, UAE written underneath, with the words “soon” also attached.
Garcia has of course been spoken of as a possible opponent for the all-time great for some time. Then things changed, and we heard it could be Pacquiao against Crawford, then Ryan Garcia claimed he was close to fighting Manny, then Conor McGregor’s name came up, then Crawford again, then Spence, and now we’re back to Mikey.
Of course nothing is in any way official yet, far from it. But with Vegafria having a legit position inside Manny’s inner circle, one would think there is at least something to the social media upload. It’s getting on for two years since Manny last fought, this in July of 2019 when he won a close decision over Keith Thurman. Garcia, 40-1(30) has not fought since his February 2020 decision win over Jessie Vargas. 33 year old Garcia has wanted a big fight with Pacquiao for some time.
So will this be the one for Manny’s ring return? We must wait for the official announcement, yet to repeat, one would think there is something solid to Vegafria’s teaser.
Pacquiao Vs. Garcia is a good fight, no doubt. There might have been additional excitement to a Pacquiao-Crawford or a Pacquiao-Spence fight, simply because Manny would have been an underdog in either fight, but Pacquiao-Garcia is a fight we will all watch. Against Garcia, 42 year old Pac Man may well enter the ring as a pretty big favorite to win. Garcia, though, has only been beaten by Spence, this up at welterweight. Can Pacquiao beat Garcia if they do actually fight, and can he do so by stoppage?