Checked live on July 14, 2026. No opponent has signed, no venue has been confirmed, and no tickets have gone on sale. That rematch with Floyd Mayweather, which should have filled September, fell apart in June, and everything since has been talk.
Short answer: nobody has announced a Manny Pacquiao next fight date. His promoter has penciled two Saturdays into the calendar, September 26 and October 3, for a return in Las Vegas. Neither one carries an opponent. His camp now points to the Mayweather rematch, once slated for September 19, in early 2027.
Status at a glance
| Item | Verified detail, July 14, 2026 |
| Fight date | None announced, none sanctioned |
| Dates under discussion | Saturday, September 26 or Saturday, October 3, 2026, Las Vegas |
| Last bout | July 13, 2025, majority draw with Mario Barrios, MGM Grand Garden Arena |
| Professional record | 62 wins, 8 losses, 3 draws, 39 knockouts |
| Age | 47, turns 48 in December |
| Division | Welterweight, 147 lbs |
| WBC standing | No. 9 at welterweight, ratings dated July 2, 2026 |
| Mayweather rematch | Off September 19, 2026, target now late January 2027 |
| BoxRec status | Inactive, no scheduled bout on the profile |
TL;DR
- Nobody has signed anything. MP Promotions has floated dates, not a matchup.
- Two of the four names his promoter listed in early July have taken other fights.
- He still holds a WBC and a WBO rating, which keeps a title shot legally possible.
- The WBA leaves him out of its welterweight ratings entirely.
- He has not retired, and no sanctioning body has stripped him of anything.
Why there is no Manny Pacquiao next fight date yet
Three things have to line up first. An opponent has to agree terms, a commission has to grant a license, and a network or a streamer has to pay for it. Only the third looks close to settled.
Sean Gibbons of MP Promotions told the Philippine Star on July 5 that he was penciling in a Saturday, either September 26 or October 3, for a Las Vegas return. He named four possible opponents and no favorite. Twelve days later, MP Promotions CEO Jas Mathur put it plainly: “Nothing is confirmed yet. So there’s nothing that’s been solidified or confirmed at all yet.”
That quote is the honest state of play. For the bouts that already have contracts behind them, our sport events and match analysis coverage tracks the cards worth planning a weekend around.
The September 19 collapse, explained
Back in February 2026, Pacquiao and Mayweather agreed to meet at the Sphere in Las Vegas on September 19. It never got as far as a poster.
Neither camp could agree on what the other had signed. Mayweather described the bout as an exhibition. Pacquiao’s side insisted the paperwork specified a sanctioned professional fight, with Mathur claiming Mayweather had signed three separate agreements. That distinction is not cosmetic. An exhibition produces no official result, usually no judges, and no effect on a fighter’s record or ranking.
By late June, the date had vanished. Pacquiao’s team blamed lawsuits, scheduling conflicts and stalled money in the Mayweather camp, including a claim by an events company chasing $4.65 million. The earliest the rematch could now land, according to that same statement, is early 2027. Mathur later narrowed it to late January.
The record, the age and the four-year gap
His BoxRec profile reads 62 wins, 8 losses, 3 draws, with 39 knockouts across 73 professional bouts. That profile lists him as inactive and shows nothing after July 2025.
He is 47 and turns 48 in December. Barrios was his first opponent in nearly four years, following the loss to Yordenis Ugas in August 2021 and a retirement that ran from 2021 into 2025. Twelve rounds at 147 lbs produced a majority draw that satisfied almost nobody.
One loose end remains. His team announced an exhibition against Ruslan Provodnikov in February, set for April 18 at the Thomas and Mack Center. No result for it appears on his record, and no outlet reported it happening. Treat that one as announced, not completed. To see how other fighters have handled a comeback this late, our athlete career profiles and journeys section beats any highlight reel.
Where he stands with the four sanctioning bodies
This matters more than it sounds. A rated fighter can take a world title shot. An unrated one usually cannot, and that alone rules out roughly half the interesting matchups.
| Body | Welterweight champion | Pacquiao’s position |
| WBC | Ryan Garcia, won the title February 22, 2026 | No. 9, ratings dated July 2, 2026 |
| WBA | Rolando Romero (super), Jack Catterall (world) | Absent, ratings dated June 30, 2026 |
| IBF | Liam Paro, won the title June 22, 2026 | Outside the champions and leading contenders |
| WBO | Title contested separately | Inside the top five, per July 2026 reporting |
So the WBC gives him his cleanest route back to a belt. Ryan Garcia sits on that title after taking it from Barrios, the same Barrios who could not beat Pacquiao a year earlier.
Who he could realistically fight
Gibbons named four candidates on July 5: Gervonta Davis, Rolando Romero, Conor Benn and Liam Paro. Two of them have since taken other work.
- Conor Benn. Booked. He challenges Ryan Garcia for the WBC belt on September 12 at T-Mobile Arena, which rules him out of a late September or early October date.
- Rolando Romero. Booked. He and Teofimo Lopez were finalizing an August welterweight title fight in Las Vegas.
- Gervonta Davis. Still open, and the biggest payday of the four. He would climb two divisions to make it, which raises its own questions.
- Liam Paro. Still open. The IBF champion offers the most legitimate belt on the list.
- Mario Barrios. Not on Gibbons’ list, though a rematch sells itself after a draw nobody liked.
Add Ryan Garcia once September 12 clears, and that is the realistic field. Everything else on the rumor list points to an exhibition, and Mathur says his team is chasing one for the fourth quarter.
Exhibition or sanctioned bout, and why the label matters
Fans tend to treat the two as the same event with different marketing. They aren’t, and the difference decides what any announced date actually means.
A sanctioned professional fight goes on the record. It can move his 62-8-3 line, and it can move his WBC position. With the right belt on the table, it can make him a world champion at 48. An exhibition touches none of that. The two sides negotiate the rules instead, so round length, glove size and whether officials score anything at all sit on the table.
Keep that in mind if a date lands in October or November. Mathur has pointed to an exhibition for the fourth quarter, which would give the calendar a Pacquiao event without giving the record a new line. Read the sanctioning body’s name before you read the poster.
What has to happen before a date is announced
Paperwork is the part fans never see, and it is where a 47-year-old’s comeback either clears or stalls. According to the federal Professional Boxing Safety Act, published in the United States Code at 15 U.S.C. 6304, four safety standards have governed every professional boxing match in the country since July 1, 1997.
The first requires a physician to examine each boxer and certify whether that fighter can safely compete. In 2026, that certificate is the gate Pacquiao walks through before any promoter prints a date.
Nevada’s commission then licenses fighters one by one, and older applicants draw closer scrutiny at renewal. After that, both camps have to write the format into the contract, professional or exhibition, because that same ambiguity killed September 19.
What to do next
Ignore anything without a sanctioning body, a venue, and a named opponent. Once those three appear together, the fight is real. Until then, bookmark this page, and read how Gamerlume checks its facts to see how we date and re-verify a story like this one.
Frequently asked questions
There isn’t one. As of July 29, 2026, no promoter or commission has confirmed a date. His promoter has floated September 26 and October 3. Neither carries an opponent.
No. He has not announced a second retirement, and his team is actively shopping for opponents.
Postponed, not dead. The camps pushed it off September 19, 2026, and his side now points to late January 2027.
62 wins, 8 losses, 3 draws, 39 by knockout. That draw with Barrios on July 19, 2025 remains his most recent bout.
Mathematically, yes, through the WBC or the WBO, where he keeps a rating. The WBA and IBF routes look shut for now.
