Recently, RIZIN President Nobuyuki Sakakibara teased on Twitter a deal with boxing legend Manny Pacquiao. Sakakibara said Pacquiao will be involved in RIZIN. 15 “in a way,” which led to many speculating that Pacquiao could be fighting for the promotion:
However, recently, Sakakibara clarified the deal with “The Pac Man” is not for fighting. Instead, he will be supporting young Filipino fighter Fritz Biagtan, who faces Tenshin Nasukawa next (via MMA Fighting):
“This is not a fight contract,” Sakakibara said. “This agreement was made based off of Manny Pacquiao supporting the young Filipino fighter who will be fighting Tenshin Nasukawa.”
In regards to possibly having Pacquiao onboard for an exhibition bout, Sakakibara said he’s definitely interested in talking to the boxing star about the possibility. But if a fight featuring Pacquiao was able to be worked out, his opponent likely wouldn’t be Nasukawa, who was steamrolled by Floyd Mayweather in January:
“I would (definitely) be interested in talking to Manny about a possible exhibition match, but we are not quite there yet,” Sakakibara said.
“But if it happens, I don’t think it would be against Tenshin. We learned a lot from dealing with Mayweather. If anybody were to fight Manny in an exhibition, it would have to be (Takanori) Gomi.”
What do you think about Pacquiao being associated with RIZIN?
