Set for his return to the ring this month, back in 2021, Manny Pacquiao had a true mega fight lined up for his career swansong.
Competing for the WBC welterweight crown on July 19 Pacquiao will look to win divisional gold for the first time since his 2019 victory against Keith Thurman.
And scheduled to fight Mario Barrios, Pacquiao will enter the ring for the first time since his fight with Yordenis Ugas in 2021. On that occasion, he lost via unanimous decision to the Cuban striker.
But before a fight with Ugas presented itself, Pacquiao was set to compete against an unbeaten world champion superstar.
Manny Pacquiao booked swansong fight with Errol Spence Jr.
Seemingly out of the blue, in the summer of 2021, Pacquiao confirmed he was set to challenge for WBC and IBF welterweight championship against the unbeaten, Errol Spence Jr. in a blockbuster pairing.
A fight between the duo had been brewing for some time, particularly after Spence Jr.’s win against Mikey Garcia in 2019.
But just as soon as the pairing had been booked, Pacquiao’s retirement fight against Spence Jr. had fallen apart.
At the end of that summer, Spence Jr. withdrew from the pairing with the Filipino star, citing a retinal tear. The dream match was ultimately never booked again.
Himself going on to beat common-foe, Ugas, Spence Jr. would go unbeaten until he was TKOed by Terence Crawford, another foe once planned to fight Pacquiao.
Terence Crawford revealed planned super fight with Manny Pacquiao
So it’s not just a pairing of Pacquiao and Spence Jr. we missed out on — but another dream clash of the undefeated Crawford and ‘Pacman’.
As far as 2015, following his win over Dierry Jean to remain WBO light welterweight champion, Crawford revealed he was targeted to fight Pacquiao.
“I fought Dierry Jean, and that was possibly my coming-out party to potentially fight Manny Pacquiao,” Crawford told Sports Illustrated.
“So that was the fight where they said if you look good, you get a shot at Manny Pacquiao at 140 [pounds]. I stopped him. Manny Pacquiao was nowhere to be seen.”
That same year, Pacquiao was preoccupied with the super fight of the generation against his long-time rival, Floyd Mayweather.