Want to know why boxing has struggled for credibility for decades? Want to know why mainstream media turned its back on the sport when Howard Cosell and not Stephen A. Smith was still the big thing on TV? Want to know why boxing makes the NHL look well run?
Well, on July 19, Manny Pacquiao will fight Mario Barrios for the WBC welterweight title.
That's 46-year-old Manny Pacquiao.
That's the Manny Pacquiao who hasn't won a fight since July 20, 2019.
That's the Manny Pacquiao who hasn't taken a fight since Aug. 21, 2021.
The's the Manny Pacquiao who struggled to a draw last July against an unknown 28-year-old Japanese MMA fighter.
These are just a few of the reasons boxing has shed more credibility than a televangelist in a strip joint. It makes no sense. There is nothing competitive, compelling or credible about it.
It will go on because Pacquiao wants the money, he'll mean a big sanction fee to the WBC and there aren't many draws left in the sport.
If Pacquiao wants to fight -- which is a bad idea at his age -- he should have to win a couple of fights to put himself back in the rankings. No one is going to do that, though, because they all know there is a good chance Pacquiao would lose before he ever gets back to a championship level.
Pacquiao won his last fight pre-COVID, pre-Turki Alalshikh and when Bill Belichick's girlfriend was still in high school.
As my old friend, the late boxing writer Jack Welsh, would say, giving Pacquiao a title shot at this point is absolutely ridiculous.
Pacquiao is a legend in this sport and rightfully will enter the International Boxing Hall of Fame next month. He's one of the greatest fighters who ever lived.
But he was great in his 20s and into his mid-30s. He's not great now; not even close.
Barrios won the interim WBC welterweight title in 2023 by routing Yordenis Ugas, the same guy who defeated Pacquiao in 2021.
Barrios is 29 and a good fighter, though hardly great. He's never going to be a star the caliber of a Pacquiao or a Floyd Mayweather, but he's an entertaining guy to watch. But if he were to lose to a nearly 47-year-old former politician -- Pacquiao was defeated Monday in another bid for a Senate seat in the Phiippines -- it'd basically destroy him as any kind of attraction. If he wins, well, he beat an old guy who hadn't won since a dozen eggs cost less than the rent payment.
There's also the point that why does boxing feel the need to treat so many of its legends this way. Mauricio Sulaiman, the WBC president, is a good guy and does so much for charitable causes. He cares about the fighters, and allowing Pacquiao to fight for the WBC belt is one of the ways he tries to show that.
But let's be real: Pacquiao looked awful on July 28 in that bout against Rukiya Anpo. He probably didn't train all that much, but he also didn't fight all that much. Barrios is vastly superior to Anpo in every way and will undoubtedly be out to make a statement against an opponent of Pacquiao's stature.
Surely, Sulaiman remembers the ignominous stoppage losses Muhammad Ali had at the end, to Larry Holmes and Trevor Berbick. It's hard to forget Sugar Ray Leonard, more than 20 years from his Olympic gold medal and more than 10 years after his epic conquest of Marvelous Marvin Hagler, being battered and beaten by Hector Camacho.
Boxing should revere its stars, not punish them by having them beaten by younger, more fit opponents.
Even if we forget what Pacquiao has meant to this sport, it's a farce strictly on a competitive level to give a guy with zero wins in six years a world title shot.
They'll never learn.
Wendell Alinea/MP Promotions
Manny Pacquiao (R) will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in June and will end his retirement in July.