While rival Floyd Mayweather, Jr. is enjoying the Philippine heat, world champion boxer Manny Pacquiao finds himself advocating for The Land of The Rising Sun signing with Japanese mixed martial arts promotion RIZIN.
Rizin head Nobuyuki Sakakibara first announced that “he was in the Philippines” on Twitter, with photos of the Philippine Boxer signing a contract captioned, “RIZIN.15 will have this man involved in a way. We will be ready to announce as I get back to Japan!” The event will happen on April 21 at the Yokohama Arena.
Pacquiao isn’t the first renowned boxer to be involved in the Japanese mixed martial arts event, as his American rival Mayweather was also part of the exhibition match on New Year’s eve for Rizin 14, where he temporarily came out of retirement to score a knockout win during the first round against Japanese kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa. Sources say that Mayweather earned a total of $4.5 million for his two minutes inside the ring of that match. In response to the height and weight difference between the two opponents, Pacquiao laughs, “Here is an early New Year’s resolution. To continue to only fight experienced opponents who are my size or bigger,” referring to Nasukawa’s 127 pounds and Mayweather’s 147 pounds.
No specific details are out yet on Pacquiao’s leave from the Senate and return to boxing, but the current World Boxing Association (WBA) Welterweight World Champion did announce that he plans to fight this year, most likely in July, following his January 19 win against Adrien Broner in Las Vegas. There are talks that his next opponents may be either Keith Thurman or Errol Spence. He currently holds a 61-7-2 win-loss-draw record with 39 knockouts.