For the past seven years, the once legendary boxing career of former pound-for-pound king and eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao has turned into a roller-coaster ride.
From getting knocked out cold by his archrival Juan Manual Marquez in a very redundant fourth-rematch in 2012, to fighting outside the United States against lower-tier opponents in Brandon Rios and Chris Algieri, to the lackluster “Fight of the Century” against Floyd Mayweather, his sorry loss to Australian Jeff Horn and his knockout victory against a worn-out Argentinian, Lucas Matthysse in his first fight as an ex-Top Rank stalwart, Manny Pacquiao, the fighting senator of the Philippines is hoping badly that his career will rise again in 2019 at the age of 40.
Things have not been exactly what Pacquiao expected it to be in the past few years after Nike axed his contract for his LGBTQ remarks, also the international community did not let pass his consent about the relentless drug war of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte that already left thousands dead in a span of two years, but Pacquiao is slowly winning the hearts of Filipino boxing fans after gaining sympathy in his controversial loss to hard-hitting Aussie Jeff Horn that stripped him off of his World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight title in 2017 held in Brisbane, Australia where he lost via unanimous decision that resulted in parting ways to his well-known trainer, Freddie Roach ending their very accomplished partnership that etched their respective names in the annals of boxing history.
Now that Pacquiao got back on his feet, the entire Filipino nation is in his back again ready to support him as he faces the flamboyant four-division world champion Adrien “The Problem” Broner on January 19 at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas, Nevada.
His fight against Broner would be the most crucial one for him lately because this will dictate the fate on landing a possible rematch against Floyd Mayweather who is busy staging exhibition matches against other forms of martial arts most notably his boxing match against Connor McGregor earlier last year and Japanese kickboxing champion Tenshin Nasukawa on New Year’s Eve.
If Pacquiao will be able to pull off a big win over Broner, the talks of a rematch against Mayweather will surely be more relevant than ever.
Pacquiao, at 40 holds a record of 60 victories along with seven defeats, two draws with 39 knockouts is now under Al Haymon and Premier Boxing Champions and his avid fans and followers were very delighted that he and Roach reunited for his fight against Broner after he decided to wrap up the remainder of his training camp at the famed Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles, where he was seen training with Roach.
Although the odds favor Pacquiao, fighting Broner will be completely different from what fans saw last year. Broner, 29, holds a record of 33 wins, three losses, one draw with 24 knockouts is proven to be one of the most slippery defensive boxers out there except for the fact that he got owned by Marcos Maidana in 2013 where the latter walked away with a decision victory and beaten Broner badly.
Pacquiao vs Broner holds a lot of interest to many boxing fans especially the outcome of the match that will dictate the future of these two decorated ring warriors.