Turki Al-Sheikh, the Saudi adviser at the Royal Court and chairman of the General Entertainment Authority, would like to see Manny Pacquiao make his comeback fight in Riyadh.
“Manny, I want you in the Kingdom,” the all-powerful Sheikh said as quoted by Pacquiao’s right-hand man Sean Gibbons during their informal meetup at ringside following Anthony Joshua’s second-round demolition of Francis Ngannou in the Saudi Arabian capital.
A day before the fight, Pacquiao and British banger Conor Benn did an informal faceoff with both boxers expressing the desire to fight each other.
Pacquiao, 45, hasn’t fought since dropping a decision to Yordenis Ugas of Cuba in August 2021 in Las Vegas.
The Filipino southpaw announced his retirement shortly after but did an exhibition in late-2022 in Korea and then sounded off that he is not ruling out a boxing return.
With Al-Sheikh presiding over Saudi’s sports and entertainment industry, promoting big-time boxing there is as frequent as planes taking off and landing at King Khalid International Airport.
