Gibbons reaffirms Pacquiao vs Benn fight talks

MANILA, Philippines -- Negotiations between the camp of Manny Pacquiao and undefeated British boxer Connor Benn went "from zero to 100", the Filipino boxing legend's adviser Sean Gibbons admitted, with a fight possibly happening later this year.

Gibbons, the president of MP promotions, said that even His Excellency Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, "loves the fight and can make it happen" in Saudi.

Pacquiao and Benn earlier crossed paths at the fight of Anthony Joshua and Francis Ngannou and they were seemingly teased by members of the media.

"They are both there at the weigh-in [of the and you had Derek Chisora joking with them saying ‘why don’t you guys’ fight’ and then Ariel Helwani was there and said ‘are we going to get a fight, how close is it and let’s have a face off’. We weren’t even negotiating but we are now and it went from zero to 100 and now we are certainly negotiating," Gibbons said in a Q&A statement made available by nordicbet.com.

"We were there just as guests but all of sudden you saw this interest and buzz around the fight," he added.

Currently, there have been preliminary talks, the official said, which could "go very quickly."

"There is no issues with the fighters, they are ready and want to fight. It can get done now," he bared.

"When you have Eddie Hearn, Conor Benn and Manny Pacquiao on board and want the fight, with rivals to idols being the name of the fight like Eddie and Conor said."

Pacquiao announced his retirement from boxing back in 2021 ahead of the 2022 national elections.

Last year, he fought South Korean martial artist DK Yoo in an exhibition.
He will be facing Muay Thai superstar Buakaw Banchamek this April for another exhibition match.

Gibbons bared that the fight may be coming soon.

"In a perfect world, June or September but we won’t be able to choose the date. Let me rephrase, June would be the best time as both guys are ready, Manny has enough time to sharpen up and Conor is always training so that would be the date," Gibbons said.

"Let’s do it at welterweight for the WBC Diamond title, a belt Manny won 14 years ago when Conor was like 13 years old or younger."