Manny Pacquiao's in-ring return has been officially announced.
The future Hall of Famer will fight four-division champion Adrien Broner on January 19 at the MGM Grand. The fight will be for Pacquiao's WBA "regular" welterweight title and be on pay-per-view.
The fight will be the first in Pacquiao's tenure with Premier Boxing Champions after signing with the company a few weeks back. Pacquiao was previously promoted by Top Rank but Pacquiao declared himself a promotional free agent after his last fight. Pacquiao won the WBA title back in July when he knocked out Lucas Matthysse in Malaysia on a fight that was streamed in the United States on ESPN+.
Pacquiao, who also works as a senator in his native Philippines, has not fought in the United States since 2016, fighting in Australia and Malaysia since his last fight stateside. Pacquiao is the only boxer in history to win a title in eight weight classes.
Broner will return to welterweight for his first title fight at that weight since losing his WBA title to Marcos Maidana in 2013. It was Broner's first title defense after winning the belt earlier in the year when he won a split decision against Paulie Malignaggi. Since then, Broner has mainly fought at junior welterweight. Broner sports a 1-1-1 record in fights since the start of 2017, losing to Mikey Garcia and most recently, fighting Jessie Vargas to a majority draw back in April.
Showtime will be in charge of the pay-per-view, but it isn't Pacquiao's first fight involved with the network. Showtime was partially responsible for handling Pacquiao's 2015 fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Pacquiao fought on a Showtime pay-per-view main event against Shane Mosley in 2011.
