Manny “Pac-Man” Pacquiao is scheduled to make his ring return on August 21, 2021 in Las Vegas against the undefeated top dog in the welterweight division Errol “The Truth” Spence Jr.
Pacquiao is going into the fight as an underdog, given his two-year layoff from the sport of boxing and being 42 years old, the question remains if he will finally show his age.
The Pac-Man has been able to compete at the top level into his late 30s and when he turned 40 he beat Keith “One Time” Thurman winning the WBA welterweight title making him the oldest fighter in history to do it.
The last man to face Errol Spence Jr. is Danny Garcia, and the former two-division world champion told Fight Hype that he sees the fight being 50/50 depending on which Pacquiao and which Spence show up.
The former champ also thinks the fight is not going the distance and someone is going to get stopped.
“I think he (Spence) can stop Pacquiao with a body shot, but I think Pacquiao can stop him too,” Garcia told Fight Hype. “I think it’s a 50/50 fight. I think that fight’s not going the distance. I said this before in another interview, if the Pac-Man that showed up against Keith Thurman then that’s a dangerous Pacquiao and the Spence that fought Kell Brook could stop Pacquiao.
Garcia believes Pacquiao saw his fight with Spence and sees something beatable in the unified champion.
“Manny is not going to fight you if he don’t think he can beat you,” said Garcia. “He is a legend, he is not going to fight you if he don’t think he has a chance to beat you. He saw our fight (Spence vs Danny Garcia) and he was like okay maybe he’s not what people think.
Garcia went on to rate Errol Spence’s punching power and doesn’t consider the undefeated Texan to be the biggest puncher he ever faced. He gives the title of hardest puncher to Lucas Matthysse with Keith Thurman a close second, but said Spence is just physically strong like former foe Lamont Peterson who wasn’t a hard hitter but had that strong physical presence in the ring.
“No Spence is not the biggest puncher, he is the strongest I ever fought physically,” Garcia said when asked about Spence’s punching power. “Just physically try to walk you down, you feel him in front of you, but he is not the biggest puncher. He is physically strong but Thurman is a harder hitter than him. Thurman punches harder than him. Thurman has more of that thump. Spence has more of that he’ll break you down. Lucas Matthysse is the hardest puncher I ever fought, Thurman is the second. Matthysse is the hardest puncher I ever fought, when he hit you it was like you gotta bite down every time or he is going to knock you out, he shakes your brain that type of hit. He will hit you on this side and you will feel it on the other side. Errol is not the biggest puncher but he is strong, he is the strongest. Him and Peterson felt like the same type of body strength. Peterson was really strong too, like physically, he couldn’t punch but he was strong.”
