Manny Pacquiao returns to boxing: Tszyu has already called him a “dreamer”

The 44-year-old Fil­ipino intends to rep­re­sent his coun­try at the Olympics.

For­mer world box­ing cham­pi­on Man­ny Pac­quiao intends to return to the sport two years after fin­ish­ing his pro­fes­sion­al career. A Fil­ipino ath­lete wants to com­pete at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, but his plans have met with dis­ap­proval from his for­mer col­leagues.

The pres­i­dent of the Philip­pine Olympic Com­mit­tee, Abra­ham Tolenti­no, announced that Pac­quiao has expressed a desire to return to the ring. He said that the box­er “wants to fight in Paris”, but there is an obsta­cle to this: he will not be able to qual­i­fy for the Asian Games due to the age lim­it for ath­letes apply­ing for par­tic­i­pa­tion in the Olympics. Only per­sons under 40 years of age are allowed to com­pete.

Tolenti­no not­ed that he is already in talks with the Asso­ci­a­tion of Box­ing Alliances of the Philip­pines and the Inter­na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tee. The first is ready to accept Pac­quiao into the nation­al team and assist him in qual­i­fy­ing.

Man­ny will turn 45 in Decem­ber 2023. He can try to qual­i­fy for the Olympic Games in Paris through two tour­na­ments, which will take place in 2024, or receive a spe­cial invi­ta­tion from the IOC.

Dreamer’s Fantasies

How­ev­er, promi­nent sports fig­ures do not con­sid­er this sce­nario like­ly. Russ­ian box­er Kon­stan­tin Tszyu com­ment­ed on the sit­u­a­tion with Pacquiao’s expect­ed return.

Accord­ing to him, the age lim­it at the Olympics works for all ath­letes with­out excep­tion. Tszyu called his col­league “one of the great­est box­ers in his­to­ry,” but not­ed that he does not con­sid­er it right to try to achieve con­ces­sions for the Fil­ipino. “When they announce that he will def­i­nite­ly per­form, then we’ll talk. For now, these are the fan­tasies of a dream­er, so to speak.”“Sovi­et Sport quotes him.”

Russ­ian box­er Denis Lebe­dev has a dif­fer­ent opin­ion. He not­ed that Pac­quiao, at 44 years old, is “still quite frisky,” so he did not see any­thing rep­re­hen­si­ble in the Filipino’s plans to com­pete at the Olympic Games. “I think it was a good deci­sion on his part.”Lebe­dev empha­sized.

Man­ny Pac­quiao is the only box­er to become a world cham­pi­on in eight weight divi­sions. He announced his retire­ment from his pro­fes­sion­al career two years ago. The Fil­ipino had his last fight on August 22, 2021 — his oppo­nent in the fight for the world title accord­ing to the World Box­ing Asso­ci­a­tion was Cuban Yor­de­nis Ugas, who won this meet­ing.

After leav­ing, Pac­quiao began his polit­i­cal career. He announced his plans to run for pres­i­dent of the Philip­pines.