On Saturday July 19th, The living legend Manny Pacquiao will face off against Mario Barrios at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Barrios will be defending his WBC welterweight title. This fight will headline a stacked PBC card of title fights and will stream live via Prime Video starting at 8PM ET/ 5PM PT.
Barrios (29-2-1, 18KOs) is a tough competitor who show he doesn’t shy from a scrap. Barrios is (3-2-1) in his last six fights and his the only two blemishes on his record come at the hands of the electrifying, and knockout machine Tank Davis who stopped barrios at 140lbs and a dominant unanimous decision loss against Keith Thurman. This is nothing to be ashamed about, both these fighters are amazing elite fighter who have long established a foothold in boxing supremacy. Barrios ended up snatching the interim WBC belt from Yordenis Ugas, who defeated Pacquiao. Barrios even came close to stopping Ugas back in 2023. In June of 2024 Barrios was elevated to full titleholder. Barrios as taking some losses and never lost a step, his tough and rugged and now that he has tasted championship victory he is not going to just roll over for Pacquiao, Barrios will be bringing everything he as to ensure the “young lion” gets to “keep his kill, from the old lion” and prove who the dominant lion is. Barrios became a champion is two weight classes and this is no small feat. “It’s all smiles between us right now, but when that bell rings, we’re going in there with bad intentions. [Pacquiao’s] trying to take my title and I have to do whatever it takes to make sure he doesn’t,” Barrios said.
Pacquiao (62-8-2, 39KOs) is a 46 year old living legend who will be making his return to the ring after a four year layoff. Even with the four year layoff and the age, Pacquiao may be an old lion but still is a lion. Barrios admitted Pacquiao’s style is hard to train for, with a style that is hard to replicate so sparring has been tricky. Pacquiao is the only “octuple” champion, winning world titles in eight weight classes and twelve major titles. Pacquiao’s credentials are unmatched, with boxing historian Bert Sugar ranking him as the greatest southpaw fighter of all time. DAZN ranked Pacquiao number 1 in their list of top boxers of the last 30 years. Pacquiao’s wars with Marcos Barrera, Erik Morales and Juan Manuel Marquez had mad him a fan favorite for years with an active, high punch output and non-stop movement, he makes his fight competitive and entertaining. Not to mention stopping Miguel Cotto and completely demolishing Antonio Margarito, detaching Margarito’s retina in the process and breaking his orbital bone basically retiring the Mexican fighter. Will the years and the inactivity be a big detriment to Pacquiao? Or will the living legend, former senator and vicious southpaw over achieve again, proving that he is beyond something special? We will have to wait for July 19th to find out.
Also on this stacked card we have two more title fights. Sebastian Fundora will be taking on Tim Tszyu in a highly anticipated rematch in which their first fight ended controversially with an unintentional elbow caused a bad cut on Tszyu with a lot of bleeding that may have ben a big factor to the outcome of this fight which ended in a close spit decision for Fundora who went home with the WBC and WBO titles. This bout will only have the WBC title on the line since Fundora has withdrawn from a WBO mandatory title defense. There is definitely bad blood here and both fighters will be entering the ring with chips on their shoulders and everything to prove, this fight will be action packed war! Lastly Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz will be rematching Angelo Fierro. Their first outing was a highly anticipated 10-round showdown with Cruz winning by unanimous decision to secure the WBC Aztec Warrior belt in what was a “fight of the year” candidate.
These three fights will be true tests of will, skill and performance, all the makings of an electrifying and entertaining night for boxing fans so make sure to put July 19th in your calendar and do not miss out on the action!
