We should find out Saturday night whether Manny Pacquiao is still Manny Pacquiao when the once seemingly invincible Filipino returns to the ring after being knocked cold in his last fight 10 months ago.
Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KOs) faces the rugged Brandon “Bam Bam” Rios in a 12-round welterweight fight at the Venetian Macao. HBO will distribute the Pay-Per-View telecast at 9 p.m. ET — Sunday morning in Macau, China.
Rios (31-1-1, 23 KOs) of Oxnard, Calif., is a former lightweight champion, whose aggressive straight-ahead style is viewed as the perfect match for the more athletic Pacquiao.
“I don’t like to chase,” Pacquiao said, “and I’m pretty sure I won’t have to chase him.”
Rios’ two most recent fights were slugfests against Mike Alvarado. Rios stopped Alvarado in seven rounds in the first fight and lost a close 12-round decision in the rematch. Both bouts were at the junior welterweight 140-pound limit.
Now Rios moves up to 147 pounds to face Pacquiao, who is coming off two straight losses: a controversial 12-round split decision to Tim Bradley in June 2012 and the one-punch knockout loss in the sixth round to Juan Manuel Marquez last December in Las Vegas.
Pacquiao, who began his career in 1995, was urged by friends and family to retire, but he wants to prove he hasn’t been damaged by the knockout.
“I saw the replay and it just happened,” said Pacquiao, 34. “That’s boxing. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. I am not going to complain or worry about what happened.”
Pacquiao’s Hall of Fame trainer, Freddie Roach, said his fighter has no lingering cobwebs.
“He has definitely put the knockout behind him,” Roach said. “Manny Pacquiao knows that the knockout is part of the sport. He realizes that if you aren’t able to handle the knockout, you picked the wrong sport. He is totally recovered and is brave as ever in the ring.”
Roach had his own altercation earlier this week when he got into a heated exchange in Macau with Alex Ariza, who once served as his strength coach for Pacquiao, but is now working with Rios and trainer Robert Garcia.
While arguing over whose turn it was to use the gym where both fighters are training, Ariza kicked Roach, who was caught on video uttering racial and anti-Semitic slurs. Ariza also mocked Roach’s verbal skills, which have been impacted by Parkinson’s disease.
While the feud between Roach and Ariza created some ugly background noise, only Pacquiao and Rios will be in the ring Saturday night. Pacquiao needs an impressive win to return to boxing’s elite and keep alive a possible future bout with Floyd Mayweather.
Mayweather still has four fights remaining on his contract with Showtime and is quickly running out of worthy opponents. A possible fifth fight between Pacquiao and Marquez also has been discussed. However, Roach has said repeatedly if Pacquiao loses to Rios, he’ll ask his fighter to retire.
Pacquiao has been serving as a congressman in the Philippines for several years and his outside interests may be taking away some of his hunger and focus needed for boxing.
“He knows he has to look impressive in the fight and he knows Brandon Rios is coming off a loss also,” Roach said. “We can’t give into him at all in this fight.”
Prediction: Rios is a tough kid who won’t go easily. He’ll try to apply constant pressure on Pacquiao and turn it into a brawl. But Rios is moving up in weight and may not carry his power with him. Pacquiao still has enough speed and punching power left to dominate Rios.
Pacquiao by seventh-round TKO.