International boxing superstar, Manny Pacquiao, made headlines over the weekend by signing a contract to appear at the upcoming RIZIN combat sports super show on April 21, 2019 inside Yokohama Arena in Japan.
No, he won’t be fighting.
Instead, “Pac Man” will serve as Filipino ambassador to Fritz Biagtan, who collides with Tenshin Nasukawa in one of two kickboxing matches. And yes, RIZIN president Nobuyuki Sakakibara is interested in cobbling together a future exhibition bout.
“I would (definitely) be interested in talking to Manny about a possible exhibition match, but we are not quite there yet,” Sakakibara said (via MMA Fighting). “But if it happens, I don’t think it would be against Tenshin. We learned a lot from dealing with (Floyd) Mayweather. If anybody were to fight Manny in an exhibition, it would have to be (Takanori) Gomi.”
RIZIN is no stranger to boxing exhibitions. Late last year, Floyd Mayweather made a highly-publicized (and highly-profitable) appearance to throw hands with the aforementioned Nasukawa and won by a landslide.
The running joke among both fans and media is that Japan is the home of “freak-show fights,” thanks to some wild and wacky showdowns in the PRIDE era, which not coincidentally, also took place under the watch of Sakakibara.
Pacquiao vs. Gomi … who wants it?