Manny Pacquiao vs. Jessie Vargas Slated For November 5th

It’s official. Manny Pacquiao is coming out of retirement. And according to his business manager, boxing’s only 8 division world champion will be facing WBO welterweight champion Jessie Vargas on November 5th.

Michael Koncz told reporters on Thursday that Pacquiao and his team will meet in the Philippines on August 10th to discuss the details of the Filipino Politician’s comeback fight. However, when asked if they would meet to discuss on who Pacman would be fighting, Koncz told reporters “that’s already been done.” Koncz countered by saying they will be discussing whether to hold the fight in Las Vegas or in Dubai.

Not Comfortable

Koncz then went on to mention the name of Vargas as Pacquiao’s choice of opponent.  He said that he and Pacquiao arrived at that decision because they felt “uncomfortable” with  the style of unified light welterweight champion Terence Crawford. Crawford won a convincing unanimous decision fight against Viktor Postol last July.

Whatever Koncz meant by “uncomfortable”, he didn’t elaborate. However, pundits are pointing to Crawford’s slick boxing style which frustrated the hard hitting Postol throughout their 12-round title unification contest.

Pacman Sweepstakes

Crawford was supposed to be the winner of the “Pacman Sweepstakes” following his win over Postol. It was made to appear by Top Rank’s Bob Arum that the winner between Crawford-Postol would have the inside track on getting the call to fight the Filipino ring legend.

However, after Crawford’s magnificent boxing job against the slugger Postol, experts believe he’s going to cause a lot of problems for Pacquiao who is known to prefer a slugfest. It can be recalled that Pacquiao lost via clear and wide unanimous decision against Floyd Mayweather in May of 2015. Pacquiao bounced back with an impressive points win over Timothy Bradley last April. Pacquiao then announced his retirement to pursue his political ambitions in the Philippines.

Political Duties

After winning as Senator in the May of 2016 Philippine elections, Pacquiao vowed not to fight again and promised to fulfill his duties as legislator. But as the months passed, Pacquiao had a change of heart. Now, he’s making sure his boxing schedules are aligned with his political duties. The Philippine senate will be at break during November 5th and the weeks leading to it, giving Pacquiao ample time to prepare for his comeback bout.

Pacquiao was first linked to fight Adrien Broner but sources say Broner priced himself out of the bout. Crawford was the next logical choice but with his PPV bout with Postol rumored to have just 50K buys, Bud is an unproven PPV dance partner. Vargas has never been a PPV draw himself, but his Mexican affiliation will help bring in additional numbers.