This weekend, Senator Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao, known to the world as Manny Pacquiao, will be returning to the boxing ring to defend his WBA Welterweight title against Adrien Broner. This will be his first defence after winning the title at the age of 40 last July against Lucas Martin Matthysse. He’ll be facing American Adrien Broner, a man with half the fights and experience that Manny has, and an 11-year age difference. This isn’t one of those ‘bad-blood’ type fights. In fact, the only disruption at the stare-down was the fact that Pacquiao was completely unable to keep a straight face.
Manny Pacquiao (4/13)
Ranked as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, Manny Pacquiao is very much a jack of any and all trades. A businessman, musician, TV host, professional basketball player and sitting Senator, it doesn’t seem like there’s much that Manny can’t turn his hand to. However it’s boxing, his first and true calling, that will be centre stage this weekend.
Any doubts that Pacquiao is slowing down will have been dispelled during his previous performance against Lucas Matthysse, when he scored his first knockdown in nine years to finish the Argentinian and take his belt. In fact, he dropped him three times during the fight, something that came as a surprise to all concerned.
Adrien Broner (11/5)
Just one space below Pacquiao on BoxRec’s list of pound-for-pound Welterweights, Adrien Broner has been a professional since 2008 and has won all but five of his 38 fights. Broner likes to jump around a bit in terms of weight classes: this will be his third return to Welterweight, having stepped down to Light Welterweight to face former world champion Jessie Vargas in a Catchweight fight. That went the distance, with both men fighting to a draw.
Broner has found himself understandably frustrated by the pre-fight talk, dismissing him as little more than a step toward a supermassive reunion between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather. He will be hoping to get an emphatic win in order to catapult himself into those sorts of conversations. Whether he will manage this or not remains to be seen. With a loss and a draw in his last two fights, Broner will be looking to gain a little traction. But it’s a big ask, as Welterweight is not Broner’s natural habitat. For this reason, and the fact of Pacquiao’s legacy, he’s an almost two-to-one underdog come Saturday.
