Manny Pacquiao may still be set for a December return on the year’s biggest card.
The 47-year-old boxing icon ended his retirement last year when he returned to face then-WBC welterweight world champion Mario Barrios, fighting to a draw and therefore failing to break his own record as the division’s oldest champion.
Pacquiao showed himself enough to continue his pro career, and a money-spinning rematch with Floyd Mayweather was announced for this year. However, legal issues on the American’s side have seen the bout postponed, perhaps indefinitely.
When ‘PacMan’s team revealed that he still plans to fight this year, many felt that an exhibition would be the course. However, rumours that he would take on the monumental task of defeating pound-for-pound star Shakur Stevenson as co-main event to Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua then gathered pace.
Despite a report from Boxing Scene that the talks were progressing, Stevenson’s promoter, Dana White, said there was no substance.
Lance Pugmire, who initially broke the news, has now followed up, reporting that Netflix still want Pacquiao on the Fury-Joshua card to maximise global reach, with Stevenson poised to make his Zuffa Boxing debut on another show.
Pugmire states that both Danny Garcia and Amir Khan have been put forward as options to face the Filipino icon.
Former two-weight world champion Garcia holds a professional record of 38-4 with 22 knockouts. The 38-year-old was last in action in October 2025, securing a fourth-round knockout victory over Daniel Gonzalez in a super-welterweight clash at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn – his self-proclaimed farewell fight.
Khan – a ormer unified super-lightweight world champion – retired in 2022, closing out his 17-year professional career with a final record of 34-6 and 21 knockouts.
The 2004 Olympic silver medalist’s final appearance in the ring came in February 2022, resulting in a sixth-round stoppage loss to longtime domestic rival Kell Brook. Khan retired shortly after, but has consistently said he would return for a Pacquiao bout and it is understood that tentative talks have taken place before.
With Fury and Joshua set to come face-to-face tomorrow at a launch press conference, news on the undercard is expected to follow in the coming weeks.
