Manny Pacquiao is heading back to the MGM Grand for his second fight of 2019.
PBC announced that the venue hosting Pacquiao’s fight against Keith Thurman, for the WBA welterweight title, will take place at the MGM Grand Grand Garden Arena. The fight is set to headline a Fox pay-per-view on July 20.
JUST ANNOUNCED - The biggest fight of the summer - a Welterweight World Championship bout between @MannyPacquiao and @keithfthurmanjr - goes down at MGM Grand Garden Arena on Saturday, July 20th. #PacquiaoThurman
— MGM Grand Hotel (@MGMGrand) May 20, 2019
-- are on sale NOW at: https://t.co/3LFFTcvAMz pic.twitter.com/mDS7FaE1B7
This will be the second straight time Pacquiao competes in Las Vegas with the first one taking place this past January when he defeated Adrien Broner to retain his WBA “Regular” title. Pacquiao won the WBA’s secondary 147-pound world title in July 2018 when he stopped Lucas Matthysse in Malaysia.
Thurman, the WBA “Super” welterweight champion, is returning to fight in Las Vegas for the first time since 2015 when he defeated Robert Guerrero with the WBA belt on the line. Since then, Thurman has fought four more times with the last three taking place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The 30-year-old Thurman is coming off a win over Josesito Lopez in January, Thurman’s first fight since March 2017.
The card will also see the undercard be televised on Fox, headlined by an IBF super middleweight title bout between Caleb Plant and Mike Lee. No other fights have been officially announced for the event, but a pair of welterweight fights have been previously reported to also take place on the card: Yordenis Ugas vs. Omar Figueroa Jr. and Sergey Lipinets vs. John Molina Jr.
