One for the money

Initially retiring in 2021, our Pambansang Kamao returned to the sport that made him a super-duper millionaire in 2025 and battled a much younger Mario Barrios to a 12-round draw.  Manny Pacquiao, now 47, who had been training for some time, is gearing up for a 10, 3-minute round fight scheduled for April 18 at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas.

This is a welterweight exhibition bout against former Wild Card stablemate and Russian former champion Ruslan Provodnikov, 42.  Like Pacman, Ruslan is also a politician and was born in a small village in Western Siberia.   Because he s an aggressive and pressure fighter, Ruslan goes by two nicknames, the  Siberian Rocky  and the  Mad Russian .

As a child, he said he used to street fight so his father, an ethnic Russian, took him to a boxing trainer when he was ten years old.   He was discovered by his current handlers and brought him to the US.

Ruslan s professional career started in 2006.  He was the WBO welterweight champion from 2013 to 2014.   He retired from pro boxing in 2016 with 25 wins and 5 losses.  He is involved in his region s sports development as a member of the board of trustees of their boxing federation.

To prove his love for his homeland, he declared his readiness to fight against Ukraine in 2022.   Compare this to the misplaced bravado of one of our  horror-ables  suggesting we surrender our sovereign territory to that big country, hiding on the premise of debates.   If the Lower House can suspend one of its members for too much TikTok, the senate can well penalize this self-proclaimed male version of the late Miriam Defensor-Santiago for his treasonous proposal.

From a boxing fan s standpoint, this exhibition match between two respected fighters won t have any knockouts as it will purely be a tactical fight.  Yet, this will still be a significant payday for both, especially for Ruslan.  It could still be an interesting watch.

Reportedly, Ruslan was the fourth choice as promoters failed to get the nods of Juan Manuel Marquez, Timothy Bradley and Marcos Maidana respectively.