With his planned June 5th clash against Terence Crawford dead in the water, Manny Pacquiao reportedly has a new target in mind. His business manager, Arnold Vegafria, posted a teaser on Instagram claiming “Pac-Man” would meet Mikey Garcia in Dubai later this year.
Vegafria went on to tell ABS-CBN that they’re still working on the date and venue, but that it would be “between July to August.”
This isn’t the first we’ve heard of this pairing; Garcia (40-1, 30 KO) claimed back in March that they were “finalizing all the details” for a May tussle that ultimately fell through, so take this news with the same grain of salt you’ve taken every bit of Pacquiao (62-7-2, 39 KO) news these last couple years.
Operating under the assumption that this is legit, I like this a lot more than the Crawford matchup. Garcia’s always been phenomenally talented, and even if he’s struggled to maintain dominance as he’s moved up in weight, Pacquiao’s own lack of size and decline due to age make it a lot more competitive and compelling than a thrashing from “Bud.”
Whatever the case, Pacquiao will definitely want to lace them up against someone sooner rather than later; he turned 42 last December and hasn’t seen action since beating Keith Thurman in July 2019.