The fighting Senator of the Philippines Manny Pacquiao announced that he is fighting this coming June 24 at Malaysia. The possible opponent is Lucas Matthysse the current WBA light welterweight champion.
For those of you who is not familiar with Lucas Matthysse below is his Boxing Record
Total fights - 44
Wins - 39
Wins by KO - 36
Losses - 4
No contests - 1
What we know so far is Freddie Roach has not committed himself yet to train Manny for this fight. Bob Arum is the the promoter for this fight, it will be De la Joya's Golden Boy Promotions and Manny's MP Promotion.
Earlier it known that Manny was asked to be an under card for Jeff Horns fight but Manny rejected the offer. There were also rumors that Manny can't fight in the US like in Las Vegas because he has issues with the IRS "again".
I wonder what Manny is trying to accomplish. You have made a good run in the world of boxing, you are loved in your country and even a representative of your people if played well, he could lead the country one day and want to still go out and embarrass himself in front of the whole world watching. I love Manny and would want him to win but losing this game would do more harm to his reputation than the hit it has take from his match with Mayweather. The only option is that he just must win.
From my perspective, it looks like Manny Pacquiao really wanted to show the world that he can still win. And after the lost from Jeff Horn, he's pride takes over and eager to show again his talent and let the people know he is not that old and he is still relevant in the world of boxing.
But for us fans, we see different, we are calling for Manny to just retire and just focus more on his day job as Senator of the Philippines. There are reports that he is already out of his contract with Bob Arum so it really doesn't make any sense for him to really fight. We would understand if the contract says that the still needed 1 fight before the end of the contract. But if the report is true then we really don't know that is the reason for him to fight.