
Whether we will ever see Manny Pacquiao square up against Conor McGregor remains to be seen. A lot has been said (and done) to suggest that the boxing-MMA crossover fight between Pacquiao and McGregor will never happen. However, it seems that McGregor may still be keen to go through with the fight, understandably. The real question is whether Pacquaio still sees any value in fighting McGregor. So if you would make a bet on the boxing, who would you bet on?
At this rate, it doesn’t even matter whether or not this fight happens anytime soon. With all the drama and ongoing developments regarding the two fighters, there’s enough to keep us entertained till they get in the ring together. To find out what’s been going on with anything regarding the Manny Pacquiao versus Conor McGregor, keep reading!
Has Manny Pacquiao Moved on From Wanting To Fight Connor McGregor, And Why?
The odds of a potential faceoff between Manny Pacquiao and Conor McGregor diminished altogether after the Irishman’s stunning loss to Dustin Poirier at UFC 257.
Manny Pacquiao and Conor McGregor had recently communicated interest in fighting one another. Something many fans were looking forward to. However, it appears as though the legendary Filipino fighter has now changed his mind regarding the super-fight. Even though Pacquiao has for now ignored fighting McGregor, the two men might still lock horns eventually. At present, the 42-year-old boxer appears to have moved on from the possibility of fighting McGregor in the boxing ring, although the fight isn’t totally off the table.
In the event that Conor McGregor gets back to the winning column in the UFC and scores a couple of significant victories over impressive opponents, Pacquiao might consider battling him again. A reason why ‘PacMan’ has changed his mind on a potential fight against Conor McGregor was that the fight wouldn’t have gotten the sort of publicity he was anticipating. Since the Irishman was fresh off a loss to Poirier, the build-up to his fight against Pacquiao might have been negatively affected, which further motivated the Filipino fighter to reconsider fighting McGregor.
So, Has Manny Pacquiao Really Moved On?
The simple answer is: yes. Manny Pacquiao has moved on from wanting to fight Connor McGregor in the mega-fight. The reason being that Pacquiao has lost interest in doing so. Pacquiao’s manager shares that they feel the demand for such a match is no longer there.
As we know, McGregor fought in an MMA bout on Saturday at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi on Fight Island. This fight had the potential to re-declare him as a world-class contender.
Unfortunately, the No.2-ranked lightweight Dustin Poirier annihilated McGregor, beat him to the floor, and afterward left him bloodied, concussed, and defeated on the canvas, midway during the second round of the wild fight. Before the UFC 257 headliner, there were numerous talks that McGregor and Pacquiao would have a mega-fight. Yet, since the Irishman has lost for the third time in three years, the Filipino fighter has left the conversation.
Pacquiao’s director, Sean Gibbons, has even commented on how it seemed as though Conor looked past Dustin and got taken out. Going further to say that maybe it was because McGregor had the Senator (Pacquiao) at the forefront of his thoughts, which may have distracted him in his fight against Poirier. This seems to have made Pacquiao and his team lose interest in the previously discussed mega-fight against McGregor.
McGregor originally told reporters that he had held continuous discussions with Pacquiao for a planned fight ahead of his UFC 246 thrashing of Donald Cerrone last year in 2020. When Pacquiao signed another managerial contract with McGregor’s agent Audie Attar, who is also the founder of Paradigm SM, it seemed to put them both in a position to agree to a mega-fight that could bring in $250 million.
Attar said recently that a Pacquiao versus McGregor mega-fight in 2021 is inevitable, due to both Pacquiao and McGregor wanting it. Pacquiao even said that he would like to battle an MMA fighter like McGregor, immediately. But after all that’s come to pass, it looks like McGregor will have to say farewell to that $250 million fight. Gibbons has gone on further to say that Conor has some business to handle in the UFC, but that a mega-fight would still have been a good time, however long it lasted.
Is Connor McGregor’s Manager Suing Pacquiao for Pulling Out of The Fight?
Conor McGregor’s manager Audie Attar has filed a lawsuit against Manny Pacquiao, due to a breach of contract. News of this came ahead of Pacquiao’s planned welterweight title fight against Errol Spence Jr.
Attar, who owns Paradigm Sports, is trying to recover a $3.3 million advance while additionally hoping to stop Pacquiao’s fight with Spence Jr this year. This fight is set to happen at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. In the lawsuit documented in Orange County, California, Attar claims he was in the middle of negotiating for Pacquiao to fight the four-division champion, Mikey Garcia.
Attar additionally claims that contending Pacquiao associates guided him back to boxing manager Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions, and Pacquaio was endorsed to battle the unbeaten WBC/IBF champion Spence. However, Pacquiao’s lawyer Dale Kinsella has made a statement claiming that the lawsuit filed by Paradigm Sports in California state court on Friday is a useless attempt by Attar to meddle with Manny Pacquiao’s upcoming mega-fight. So far, Pacquiao has not done anything wrong, Kinsella goes on to say that Attar’s attempt can and will fail for various reasons.
Attar’s lawyer also claims that Paradigm did not honor their end of the contract. In a statement made by Kinsley, he said that had Manny Pacquiao realized that Paradigm Sports had no intention of fulfilling its contractual obligation to him, he would have never gone into any relationship with them.
The lawsuit allegedly asserts that Pacquiao was to never fight for Premier Boxing Champions again. Except if the adversary was Floyd Mayweather Jr., Pacquiao and Paradigm entered into their contract in February 2020, as per the lawsuit, and initially sought a four-fight deal DAZN that would begin with a fight against Garcia. Attar was additionally hoping to plan a fight between Pacquiao and McGregor, yet the Irishman’s trilogy battle with Poirier on the 10th of July put that on ice.
It seems we may need to wait for the outcome of the lawsuit before we can place final bets on whether Conor will actually get the chance to fight Pacquiao.