Manny Pacquiao Explains How he's Different to Muhammad Ali

Pacquiao has not fought in almost four years since a unanimous decision loss to Yordenis Ugas, who beat the Filipino fighting icon so bad that his wife, Jinkee, was seen on video days later helping feed him, because he was struggling to open his eyes and see for himself, on account of the swelling that Ugas had inflicted from all the punching.

Pacquiao, 46, has not won a fight since his split decision win over Keith Thurman in 2019, aged 40 years and 215 days. But, judging from what he said at a press conference that GIVEMESPORT attended, he believes he's superior to big-name fighters like Ali, like Sugar Ray Leonard, who left retirement for one more fight.

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Manny Pacquiao Explains How he Differs to Muhammad Ali

'Pacman' also revealed the only way he'll know whether to retire from boxing forever

Prominent boxing reporter Sean Zittel asked Pacquiao in a press huddle alongside GIVEMESPORT how his comeback could differ to other legends like Ali and Leonard, who came back too late. Ali suffered back-to-back defeats to Larry Holmes and Trevor Berbick after two to three years away, while Leonard ended a six-year retirement to lose to Hector Camacho.

Pacquiao, though, insisted he won't be another statistic.

It's unclear how good, or bad, Pacquiao will look come July. Only last year the sport witnessed an unsuccessful comeback when Mike Tyson returned to the ring aged 58 to fight Jake Paul and, though he looked reasonable enough in the opening round, the spectacle lost its spark and Tyson went from the Baddest Man on the Planet, to the Saddest.

While Pacquiao is 12 years younger than Tyson, his opponent in Mario Barrios is arguably a considerable number of times superior to Jake Paul, so similar issues may present themselves in the ring,

Regardless, the Premier Boxing Champions card itself on the 19th of July at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas is a stacked one, and there are fights outside the main event which represent a great advert for boxing, including rematches of Fight of the Year contenders in Isaac 'Pitbull' Cruz vs Angel Fierro 2 and Sebastian Fundora vs Tim Tszyu 2.