LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — Philippine boxing great Manny Pacquiao said Friday he’ll fight unified welterweight world champion Errol Spence in Las Vegas in August.
The 42-year-old legend will be fighting for the first time since he beat Keith Thurman in July 2019 for the WBA welterweight title.
He revealed his plans with a Twitter post of a promotional poster for the bout captioned “Pacquiao v Spence, August 21, 2021, Las Vegas, Nevada”.
The Athletic, citing an unnamed source, reported that Pacquiao had signed a deal for a bout to be available on Fox pay per view, and the venue was expected to be the MGM Grand.
Spence, 31, is 27-0 and coming off a dominant December victory over Danny Garcia — his first fight since surviving a near fatal rollover car accident.
Pacquiao, who owns a record of 62-7-2, had been planning a return to the ring for some time, but earlier this month the targetted opponent had appeared to be American Mikey Garcia.
Philippine media had said a July fight against Garcia was on the cards.
That came after Top Rank chief Bob Arum told BoxingScene.com that Pacquiao and Terence Crawford had an agreement in place for a June 5 bout in Abu Dhabi, but it had fallen apart because the people putting up the money missed the deadline.
© Agence France-Presse
