Inside the making of Manny Pacquiao vs. Mario Barrios — or how a 46-year-old became boxing’s story of the summer

In the dismal aftermath of Manny Pacquiao’s last fight in August 2021, his wife Jinkee, who had been by his side at his pay-per-view bouts for years, helped feed the aging warrior because the beating Yordenis Ugas inflicted on him was so bad, he could barely open his eyes.

Pacquiao had severe bruising over his left brow, and around both eyes. His face was swollen. Five stitches helped heal a cut. Pacquiao was five days removed from going 12 rounds with Ugas, yet still wore the wounds of war. Fans were used to seeing him thrill venues around the world through dozens of knockout wins, and iconic multi-fight rivalries with Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez. For so long, he looked invincible. But, in that one moment, he looked like he had little left to offer elite boxing.

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The video was sad and uncomfortable viewing, particularly for those who have seen — or indeed, written — these types of stories before.

Here was an older boxer who no longer had it, who had just fought an opponent he would’ve handled with ease had he still been in his prime, but who he nonetheless lost to, in his twilight years, by domination. It was over. He was not coming back from this.

It’s hard, in boxing, to even score one win against a Hall of Fame fighter. That caliber of combat athlete consistently operates at a pound-for-pound level. Pacquiao has beaten nine of those opponents — from Erik Morales, to Ricky Hatton, to Oscar de la Hoya. He’s won world championship titles in eight weight classes — more than anybody in the sport’s history.

The loss to Ugas, though not too far removed from Pacquiao’s history-making come-from-behind win over Keith Thurman, reiterated that, although he’d led a wildly decorated career, it was time to retire — and never fight at that level again.

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“In the future, you may not see Manny Pacquiao in the ring,” Pacquiao himself told reporters at the time.

Pacquiao had a lot going on outside the ring to stay busy in retirement. He served as a senator of his native Philippines from 2016 to 2022, having entered politics in 2010 as a representative for Sarangani. He even ran for President. If ever there was a calling for a fighter to not come back to a sport as brutal and unforgiving as boxing, Pacquiao seemed to have found it in public office.

Yet rumors of a comeback persisted. He took part in exhibitions against DK Yoo and Rukiya Anpo. Whispers persisted throughout 2024 that Pacquiao was targeting an improbable final run in actual boxing, with real rules and regulations, and had, through his long-time representative Sean Gibbons, targeted Mario Barrios, the WBC welterweight champion, as his opponent.

Pacquiao, we heard, wanted that WBC championship. But time, Gibbons told us, was running out. It was 2024 or bust.

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While Pacquiao and his team wanted the fight last year, it fell apart “for whatever reason,” Barrios’ coach Bob Santos told Uncrowned at the time. “We were in negotiations. I know Pacquiao wanted to fight. We wanted to fight, and it would have been a great world title fight, but they just couldn’t come together in the time frame.”

Instead, Barrios boxed Abel Ramos to a draw on a Netflix card that aired to an estimated worldwide audience that exceeded 100 million peak viewers. Jake Paul beat Mike Tyson in the main event.

This past May, Pacquiao placed 18th in the Philippine race for Senate. One man watching from the sidelines was Barrios. “I got word that he still wanted the fight, but they wanted to see what was going to happen with the election,” the champ told Uncrowned.

When asked if he was secretly hoping Pacquiao would lose, as it could reinvigorate the championship talks with a boxing legend returning to the ring, Barrios merely laughed. “It was a relief,” he said. “I was impatient. I stayed in the gym, all types of fighters calling me out. I just wanted to know what the next move was already.”

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A Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) insider told Uncrowned that they did not think Pacquiao could take any time off from his Senate campaign, which was why the bout never took place in 2024 as had been originally planned. But with politics out of the picture, “the fight finally ended up happening,” Barrios said. Pacquiao wasn’t retired, after all.

The PBC source said that, despite big fights heading to T-Mobile Arena, Pacquiao only ever wanted to fight in one venue in Las Vegas — the MGM Grand Garden Arena, where he’s fought 15 times. It’s a full circle moment for Pacquiao, considering his U.S. debut came by surprise, as he was on vacation and offered a fight he could not refuse. He annihilated Lehlo Ledwaba in the sixth round in 2001, and over the next two decades, built a reputation as one of combat’s most exciting and bankable stars.

“To be back in the MGM Grand means a lot to me. When we came to the U.S., that time, we we’re not even looking for a fight,” Pacquiao told Uncrowned of his first fight on U.S. soil. “But I love MGM. It’s a lot of memories of my career, for however many years,” he added, looking back at wins over de la Hoya, Hatton and Miguel Cotto.

That U.S. debut against Ledwaba was also the first time Pacquiao had worked with his eventual longtime coach Freddie Roach, who’s spoken lovingly of Pacquiao ever since. The day this skinny southpaw walked into his Wildcard Boxing Club, Roach said, he knew it would change his life forever.

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“I felt that as well,” Pacquiao said. “We did a couple of rounds with mitts back in 2001. Now we’re together again, continuing our careers.”

Both Pacquiao and Roach have aged in those 24 years, but one thing that has stayed the same is the Wildcard Boxing Club. It’s a place Pacquiao was “excited” to return to. It’s where Hollywood celebrities gathered for decades, just to watch him prepare for his pay-per-view shows.

“I have so many favorite memories here,” said Pacquiao, “particularly when Mark Wahlberg and Sylvester Stallone came to support me.”

Yet the controversy that looms over this card remains — the age difference between Pacquiao, 46, and Barrios, 30.

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When Roach himself competed, his boxing coach Eddie Futch warned him about continuing, as Futch believed Roach was showing early signs of Parkinson’s disease in 1985. Roach ignored the advice, and went on to lose five of his last six fights, before retiring at 26. Roach, these days, still lives with the symptoms of that decision-making, but has said he’d never shy away from having that same talk with his own fighters, if he thought they, too, were too old to compete.

It begs the question of whether Roach and Pacquiao have had that talk. When asked, the former champ skirts around the question. “Being a fighter is not easy,” Pacquiao said. “There’s a lot of consequences if you don’t discipline yourself. Even to the smallest rules, during preparation, there’s a protocol of boxing and a protocol of a fighter that we need to follow that we need to stay strong and last in the career.”

Insiders at PBC do not share these concerns, either.

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There are “no concerns about his age,” according to a PBC executive Uncrowned spoke to. “With the way that modern nutrition and training goes, guys are fighting older. He didn’t look great against Ugas and that was four years ago. But he’s been away from the ring for a substantial amount of time, so there’s no wear or tear, or damage in that time. Nobody was concerned that this guy was Mike Tyson [losing to Paul] at 58 years old. There aren’t any concerns about his age.”

When PBC held the Gervonta Davis vs. Ryan Garcia pay-per-view in 2023, insiders at the company felt it provided a financial lifeline to Garcia’s promoter Golden Boy Promotions as, combined, they generated 1.2 million sales at the box office — a figure that’s not since been toppled in the American market.

Those same insiders may now benefit from the same kind of financial lifeline. If foot traffic alone is a measurable metric, there is clear Pacquiao fever already in Las Vegas. PBC sources also regard it as the event of the summer.

“Just from emails I’m getting from people interested in tickets, I think it will sell well,” one source connected to the event said. “It’s a familiar name in Pacquiao, back in action. Sports fans, not necessarily boxing fans … they don’t care he’s 46 years old. LeBron James and Tom Brady still competed well into their 40s. And at a high level. People aren’t as put off by age anymore as they used to be, even though boxing is a brutal sport.”

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PBC also stands to benefit regardless of the result. If Barrios wins, they can make a welterweight unification fight against their fellow fighter Rolly Romero, who scored one of the biggest upset wins of 2025 over Garcia this past May. If Pacquiao wins, well, wow … they could match Davis against Pacquiao, or even lure Floyd Mayweather Jr. back to the ring for a rematch of their 2015 spectacle, which remains the best-selling combat event of all time.

“If Pacquiao wins, he’s a welterweight champion, and he’d keep going,” a source at PBC said. “There’s fights out there that are harder. Pacquiao-[Davis] is a monster fight. If you have to have a welterweight fight, it would be best if both guys were small welterweights as Pacquiao’s not a huge guy. It would be a heck of a fight.”

As for a Mayweather rematch, the source added: “If Pacquiao won, it probably would trigger something in his head for a rematch, which would do big business.”

Pacquiao won’t get carried away, though, and wants to take things “one fight at a time.”

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“My goal is to win the fight convincingly to impress the fans,” he said.

Whichever way the result goes, considering the buzz already in Vegas, it’s clear that Pacquiao, even at his age, continues to be one of the biggest draws in the entire sport. But whether he can continue that, with a win over Barrios, to fight the likes of ‘Tank’ or Mayweather, remains to be seen.