By Edward Chaykovsky
On Saturday night at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao will return to the ring against WBO welterweight champion Jessie Vargas. The fight will be carried by Top Rank's pay-per-view arm.
Pacquiao will snap a very short-lived retirement. He walked away from the sport in April after winning a decision over Timothy Bradley in their trilogy fight. It took about two months before Pacquiao was already planning a return to the ring.
Vargas and Pacquiao share the same promoter in Top Rank. Vargas was at one time promoted by Floyd Mayweather Jr. - who is Pacquiao's career rival. Vargas eventually broke away from Mayweather's promotional arm, Mayweather Promotions, and signed on with manager Cameron Dunkin and Top Rank.
Mayweather and Pacquiao finally fought last May, after six years of hype, and Mayweather walked away with a twelve round unanimous decision victory.
Pacquiao has been desperate to get a rematch, but Mayweather retired from the sport last September after winning a twelve round unanimous decision over Andre Berto.
Mayweather, while discussing the fight between Pacquiao and Vargas, believes the factor of "age" will be used to explain a potential loss by the Filipino star.
"If Pacquiao happens to lose the fight, they're going to say age played a factor. If it was me and I lost at his age, they'd been like, 'Yo, I told you Mayweather wasn't what they said he was,'" Mayweather told Fighthype.com.
Mayweather also took a few swings at Top Rank's lack of options for Pacquiao, by pointing out how he faced several fighters on multiple occasions. Pacquiao fought Juan Manuel Marquez four times, Tim Bradley three times, Erik Morales three times, and Marco Antonio Barrera twice.
"I mean, really over at Top Rank, they don't really have too many options," Mayweather said. "So we talking about something like 5 guys, something like that, 20 times. 20 of his fights was just by 5 guys or 4 guys; I don't really know. Real crazy."
