So, Manny Pacquiao, the only eight-division world champion in history, is fighting Ruslan Provodnikov in an exhibition on April 19 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.
Big deal.
It is a nothing burger, to say the least. It is news only because it is Manny Pacquiao involved—and nothing else. But in terms of legacy, history, and significance, it is a blip, a footnote, a step down. Not that the Pac-Man hasn’t done it before, because he’s fought in such spectacles before, “fighting” Korean celebrity DK Yoo in 2022 and Japan’s Rukiya Anpo in 2024.
Manny Pacquiao Has Earned It
For what it’s worth, Manny Pacquiao has earned the right to do whatever he wants with his career. He has nothing left to prove. He has bled for the sport, carried the hopes of a nation on his shoulders for 20-something years, and cemented his status as one of boxing’s best ever. If he chooses to lace up the gloves for a payday in the twilight of his 40s, that is his prerogative. “Tao lang,” as some would say. After all, even icons have bills to pay and a lifestyle to maintain—especially after a failed bid in politics.
However, settling for an exhibition again feels a bit disappointing, or even disingenuous, more so for fans and purists who watched the Pac-Man conquer the world. Seeing a titan relegated back to the exhibition circuit—a space usually reserved for YouTube personalities and retired heavyweights past their prime—feels like a dilution of a once-fearsome legacy built on knockout after knockout, conquest after conquest.
The exhibitions against Yoo and Anpo were somewhat understandable. Pacquiao was retired by then, settling into more of a celebrity figure living the life. This spectacle against the 41-year-old Provodnikov, however, is a step down after the Pac-Man camp’s previous big talk that the fighting pride of the Philippines was out to make history again. Pacquiao already proved in his razor-thin loss to WBC welterweight champ Mario Barrios that he still has some gas left in the tank, and his name was linked to contender after contender after contender.
After all that, Manny Pacquiao settled on an exhibition with a former sparring partner who has been inactive for over a decade now. Whatever happened to chasing history?
Vast Chasm Between Legacy and Spectacle
Exhibitions, by their very nature, lack the high stakes that built the Manny Pacquiao mythos. For decades, the Filipino icon was the ultimate giant-slayer, taking on the likes of Oscar De La Hoya, Miguel Cotto, and Floyd Mayweather Jr. in bouts that felt like cultural shifts.
To see that same legendary southpaw now headlining a non-sanctioned event against a retired Provodnikov is definitely a massive step down. It is a move from the sweet science to sports entertainment, and for a fighter who always prided himself on fighting the best in their prime, this feels like a departure from his own core values, especially since he had shown he can still do damage at 147.
So, let’s call the Manny Pacquiao vs. Ruslan Provodnikov fight what it really is: a money grab.
