Make no mistake, I appreciate Manny Pacquiao. 

The things he accomplished after reaching the championship level more than two decades ago measure up to anyone over the same time frame, and he’ll be a deserving International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee from the very instant he becomes eligible.

But in spite of chatter since he returned to the ring for an exhibition fundraiser over the weekend and a recent interview in which he suggested he could come back to “test” the likes of Terence Crawford and Errol Spence Jr. – who seem hell-bent on not fighting one another – let’s not get crazy.

For those unaware, Pacquiao is now four days from birthday No. 44, without a win of any kind since 2019 and hasn’t gotten one against anyone capable of truly elite resistance (newly minted Hall of Famer Tim Bradley, perhaps) since his odometer was a few months past 37.

Nevertheless, the Filipino’s camp is once again buzzing.

“(The exhibition was a) very good steppingstone to come back,” Pacquiao said. 

“This is a great opportunity to come back in the ring. I thought it was easy to retire. I really missed boxing. I felt lonely when I retired from boxing.”

But for Manny’s sake, loneliness may not be quite as bad as it seems.

Particularly if the test he’s seeking indeed has Crawford’s name at the top.

For those uninitiated, the Nebraskan was a two-defense champion at lightweight and a six-defense king at 140, racking up nearly every belt imaginable before heading to the big stage at welterweight.

And all he’s done since then is decisively stop the penultimate man to beat Pacquiao – Jeff Horn – to win the WBO title and six more defenses via stoppage across a grand total of 47 rounds.

The most recent of those defenses came Saturday night when the Omaha hero dispatched sixth-ranked WBO contender David Avanesyan in six rounds to get to 39-0 since 2008.

He’s among the very best fighters in today’s world to these eyes – warranting a spot alongside Oleksandr Usyk and Naoya Inoue, among others – and he’s the kind of fighter who appears poised to maintain that status for the long term, whether he stays at welterweight or climbs to 154.

Pacquiao won 62 fights in a career that touched four decades, and he’ll be part of the appropriate IBHOF induction class – alongside surnames like Ali, Robinson, and Marciano.

Whether Crawford stays around long enough to garner a worthwhile fraction of that relevance remains a mystery, but one Ali-era commandment seems clear from this vantage point:

If Pacquiao even dreams about beating “Bud,” he’d best wake up and apologize.

While Crawford has already leapt from 135 pounds to 140 and subsequently evolved into a terrific welterweight, those around the Filipino in younger days long insisted he’d be more comfortable – and perhaps more devastating – with a move down to 140, a division he invaded with a two-round erasure of Ricky Hatton in 2009 before chasing bigger names and purses at 147 and beyond.

So, angling for Crawford or his ilk at this stage would be bites far past what he’s capable of chewing.

Crawford would stand nearly three inches taller in a press conference staring contest while possessing an even more significant seven-inch edge in reach, and a successful match with a pay-per-view legend would go a lot further toward putting the now-35-year-old triple champion over with mainstream fans as he heads into the far turn and the backstretch of his own career.

Spence, incidentally, is penciled in for Pacquiao’s pal Keith Thurman sometime early next year.

He holds the IBF, WBA, and WBC titles, having won the middle strap by stopping Yordenis Ugas. The same Ugas who took the “Pac Man” to old man school and sent him to retirement 16 months ago.

If it ever happens, Crawford-Spence is the fight that will define a generation at 147.

In the meantime, burying a past-vintage Pacquaio would be a lucrative pit stop.

Crawford was long on the “eventually, he'll get Pacquiao” path that Top Rank czar Bob Arum used to suggest for Brandon Rios – before age, weight and brawls took their toll on “Bam” and ultimately made his duel with Pacquiao more sparring than scintillating.

Crawford seems in no danger of fizzling, thanks to both talent and will.

Meantime, you’ll have a long wait to find someone who buys into Pacquiao’s prospects as anything more than a money grab, as it was characterized to Boxing Scene by long-time HBO stalwart Jim Lampley, or just another story of a boxer unwilling to stay away from the limelight.

“Fighters can’t stay away,” Randy Gordon, host of “At The Fights” on SiriusXM, told Boxing Scene. 

“He could still win some fights but not at an elite level. How about a fourth fight between Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley?”

* * * * * * * * * *  

This week’s title-fight schedule:

IBF/WBA/WBC/WBO bantamweight titles – Tokyo, Japan
Naoya Inoue (IBF/WBA/WBC champ/No. 1 IWBR) vs. Paul Butler (WBO champ/No. 13 IWBR)
Inoue (23-0, 20 KO): Seventh WBA title defense; Twentieth fight in Japan (19-0, 16 KO)
Butler (34-2, 15 KO): First title defense; Held IBF title at 118 pounds (2014, zero defenses) 
Fitzbitz says: I’d love to suggest Butler will find a way to give Inoue a real struggle but it’s far more likely that he’ll be able to end things pretty much whenever he wants to. Inoue in 5 (100/0)

Last week's picks: 1-1 (WIN: Crawford; Warrington)  
2022 picks record: 40-16 (71.4 percent)  
Overall picks record: 1,249-408 (75.4 percent)  

NOTE: Fights previewed are only those involving a sanctioning body's full-fledged title-holder – no interim, diamond, silver, etc. Fights for WBA "world championships" are only included if no "super champion" exists in the weight class.  

Lyle Fitzsimmons has covered professional boxing since 1995 and written a weekly column for Boxing Scene since 2008. He is a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Reach him at fitzbitz@msn.com or follow him on Twitter – @fitzbitz.