Manny Pacquiao has been preparing for his upcoming fight against Errol Spence Jr., but the Filipino legend will now have to face a different opponent.
Spence suffered a torn retina in his left eye and is pulling out of his fight against Pacquiao, according to a press release. Pacquiao will instead face Yordenis Ugas, who was initially scheduled to defend his welterweight title on the undercard. The new fight will still take place on Saturday, Aug. 21.
“I’m very disappointed that I won’t be able to fight Manny Pacquiao on August 21,’’ Spence said in a statement distributed to the media. “I was excited about the fight and the event. Unfortunately, the doctors found a tear in my left eye and said I needed to get surgery on it ASAP and that there was no way I could fight with my eye in that condition. I’d like to apologize to everyone. You know I’ll be back as soon back soon. We’ve come back from worse.’’
Pacquiao has not fought since 2019. Spence, 31, is 27-0 with 21 KOs. He is younger and in his prime, which is why the fight would have been a tough one for Pacquiao.
Pacquiao announced in February that he was preparing for his next fight. There were rumors about him facing Terence Crawford, but that fell through. Then it looked like he might fight Mikey Garcia, but Pacquiao’s team may have just been keeping Garcia on the hook while they negotiated with Spence. In any event, Pacquiao-Spence is off.
