By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Filipino boxing legend Manny Pacquiao is still open to fighting former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) superstar Conor McGregor if time permits this 2024.
According to Sean Gibbons, the president of the Manny Pacquiao (MP) Promotions, boxing’s only eight-division world champion expressed a desire to fight McGregor before the year ends.
Gibbons confirmed that he already gave Pacquiao a nine-month period window to fight again before skipping all planned exhibition bouts.
“It was always really a great dream for him and Conor McGregor, but Conor’s got so much UFC business or whatever. Manny’s got about nine months left because he’s going to run for office again, so he’s still actively looking for something,” said Gibbons.
Before the McGregor fight was brought up, it was British professional boxer Conor Benn who was supposed to square off with Pacquiao.
However, as contract negotiations were about to fold, certain terms in the last stage of their talks suddenly broke down and the fight never materialized.
It was still a difficult situation for the Pacquiao camp as Benn tested positive for performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) ahead of his fight against Chris Eubank Jr.
If he will be able to overcome the hurdle and be free of suspension, Gibbons said that they are also not ruling out opening the doors again to Benn’s camp.
“Conor Benn, they said he comes off suspension in September, there’s still an opportunity to do that. I always thought Kell Brook would have been fun… Exhibitions… Conor Benn was the ideal fight because it would have been competitive,” added Gibbons.
