Home » Benn on potential fight with Pacquiao: ‘It would be my honor’

Benn on potential fight with Pacquiao: ‘It would be my honor’

England’s Conor Benn said having a fight with Filipino boxing legend Manny Pacquiao this year “would be my honor.”

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First head-to-head encounter

Benn, 27, met Pacquiao, 45, for the first time in Saudi Arabia, and news about their potential fight quickly circulated.

“That’s what I was there for, really,” he said. “I knew he [Pacquiao] was going to be there. Right now, that’s looking like the one we’re focusing on.”

Benn last fought Peter Dobson in Las Vegas last month, where he claimed a unanimous decision victory.

The son of two-time world champion Nigel Benn recalled that facing off with the future Hall of Famer himself felt surreal.

“Yeah, obviously, when we did the face-off, it’s like looking into a legend’s eyes,” Benn said. “It was sort of surreal.”

Facing Pacquiao is a huge honor

Benn wanted to fight other boxers from the 147lbs division, but Pacquiao himself expressed interest in having a match with the young fighter.

He added that it would be an honor to share a ring with the eight-division world champion.

“He’s mentioned my name, his manager [Sean Gibbons], but also, it’s not like I haven’t chased the 147s. How many times have I got to mention the 147 names?” Benn said.

“And there’s videos out there saying that they don’t want the fight, that I’m not a big enough name, or I’m not ranked or whatever – [Derek] ‘Bozy’ Ennis was saying… so what do you want me to do? We called for [Mario] Barrios, we called for [Yordenis] Ugas, we called for [Keith] Thurman… So it’s like, what do you want me to do? If a legend [like Pacquiao] wants to share the ring with me, it would be my honor,” he added.

Pacquiao’s last professional fight happened in August 2021, where he absorbed a unanimous decision loss to Yordenis Ugas.

“But also, he’s old until he’s not old,” Benn added. “People will always have something to say. People had something to say when I went up to 160 [for Eubank]. He fought Ugas two years ago, but I’m not going to turn down the offer to fight a legend if the offer is out to me. It would make no sense.”