LOS ANGELES - Philippine boxing icon Manny Pacquiao said Friday he'll fight unbeaten unified welterweight world champion Errol Spence in Las Vegas in August.
The 42-year-old legend will be fighting for the first time since he beat Keith Thurman in July 2019 for the WBA welterweight title.
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He revealed his plans with a Twitter post of a promotional poster for the bout captioned "Pacquiao v Spence, August 21, 2021, Las Vegas, Nevada".
The Athletic, citing an unnamed source, reported that Pacquiao had signed a deal for a bout to be available on Fox pay per view, and the venue was expected to be the MGM Grand.
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But Pacquiao told The Athletic in an interview from the Philippines that he hoped the fight would be at Allegiant Stadium, the 70,000-seat stadium of the NFL's Las Vegas Raiders.
Pacquiao, a serving senator in the Philippines, told the US sports outlet that the fight "might be" his last. If so, he appears to want to go out with a bang.
"I love to challenge the top guy," the eight-division champion told The Athletic.
Spence, the 31-year-old WBC and IBF champion, is 27-0 and coming off a dominant December victory over Danny Garcia -- his first fight since surviving a near fatal rollover car accident.
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Pacquiao, who owns a record of 62-7-2, had been planning a return to the ring for some time, but earlier this month the targeted opponent had appeared to be American Mikey Garcia.
Philippine media had said a July fight against Garcia was on the cards.
That came after Top Rank chief Bob Arum told BoxingScene.com that Pacquiao and Terence Crawford had an agreement in place for a June 5 bout in Abu Dhabi, but it had fallen apart because the people putting up the money missed the deadline.
AFP