\n
Exhibition fever has come to Manny Pacquiao.<\/p>\n
The Filipino icon will take part in an exhibition match promoted by Japan’s mixed martial arts league, Rizin, in 2023, the fighter announced Saturday in Japan.<\/p>\n
In a surprise appearance at Rizin FF 40 held at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, the eight-division boxing champion signed with Rizin to face an as-yet-unconfirmed Japanese opponent in 2023.<\/p>\n
During his in-ring presentation, Pacquiao said, “I came here as a guest a few months ago and tonight I have a very exciting announcement to make.” and Raijin’s chosen opponent. And I’m open and excited to fight a Japanese fighter. Thank you.”<\/p>\n
When RIZIN president Nobuyuki Sakakibara asked Pacquiao if he was open to “any” Japanese opponent, Pacquiao said yes.<\/p>\n
“Any Japanese opponent,” he said.<\/p>\n
Pacquiao retired from the sport in 2021 to focus on his country’s presidential bid after losing a point to Yordenis Ugas. (He ended up quite short).<\/p>\n
He returned to the ring, albeit in an exhibition, in December against South Korean mixed martial artist DK Yoo. Yu had little boxing experience, so the outing was almost silly.<\/p>\n
At a press conference after the initial announcement, Pacquiao promised his next opponent would be a much better player than Yu.<\/p>\n
Pacquiao said, “It’s good to have an exhibition fight in December.” [was] martial arts[ist] People who know nothing about boxing. That’s why he struggled in the ring. But the next exhibition match here in Japan will be different. Your opponent is probably a professional MMA fighter, so they know how to punch.<\/p>\n
Rizin famously promoted an exhibition match between Pacquiao’s longtime nemesis Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Tenshin Nasukawa in 2018, with Mayweather stopping the kickboxing star in the first round.<\/p>\n
Mayweather defeated Pacquiao in a hard-fought superfight in 2015. Pacquiao has repeatedly asked for a rematch.<\/p>\n
Is a Mayweather vs. Pacquiao exhibition fight possible? Pacquiao took a diplomatic stance on the question. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy plan today is one of a kind,\u201d Pacquiao said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
[ad_2]
\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[ad_1] Exhibition fever has come to Manny Pacquiao. The Filipino icon will take part in an exhibition match promoted by Japan’s mixed martial arts league,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-boxing-mma-combat-sports","two-columns"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/atswins.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/pacquiao-rizin.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atswins.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atswins.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atswins.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atswins.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atswins.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atswins.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atswins.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atswins.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atswins.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atswins.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}