When is Mario Barrios vs. Manny Pacquiao?

Mario Barrios vs. Manny Pacquiao is on Saturday, July 19. The main pay-per-view broadcast begins at 8 p.m. Eastern Time (Saturday, 1 a.m. BST).

What channel is Mario Barrios vs. Manny Pacquiao?

Mario Barrios vs. Manny Pacquiao is a pay-per-view available via Amazon’s Prime Video, PPV.com, and traditional cable and satellite television providers.

The preliminary undercard will stream for free on Prime Video for subscribers and non-subscribers alike.

Where is Mario Barrios vs. Manny Pacquiao?

The fight is taking place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Who is Mario Barrios?

Barrios, 29-2-1 (18 KOs), is the WBC welterweight titleholder, one of four men who had secondary belts and then were upgraded as the previous undisputed champion, Terence Crawford, made his way out of the division.

Barrios, a 30-year-old from San Antonio, Texas, has been described by some as the most vulnerable of the three remaining titleholders for the returning Pacquiao to choose from. (The other options would’ve been WBO titleholder Brian Norman Jnr and unified IBF/WBA titleholder Jaron “Boots” Ennis, who recently vacated the IBF belt and is headed north to junior middleweight.)

Part of that conclusion about Barrios may be due to his two losses – an 11th-round stoppage against Gervonta “Tank” Davis in 2021 at junior welterweight, followed immediately by a wide unanimous decision defeat to Keith Thurman at welterweight in 2022. Barrios also didn’t impress in his last performance, a draw with Abel Ramos last November on the undercard of Jake Paul-Mike Tyson. Barrios was dropped in the sixth round of that bout.

But on his best night, in September 2023, Barrios took a clear decision over Yordenis Ugas to win the interim WBC title. Ugas, of course, is the man who sent Pacquiao into retirement in 2021. After the Ugas fight, Barrios unanimously outpointed Fabian Madiana in May 2024 and then took on Ramos.

Who is Manny Pacquiao?

Pacquiao should need no introduction. But then again, this section should instead be titled “Who was Manny Pacquiao?” 

That’s because Pacquiao is 46 years old, and the icon from General Santos City in the Philippines was just inducted in June into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, something he was eligible for because he last fought in 2021. That year, Pacquiao was supposed to take on Errol Spence Jnr, but Spence had an eye injury and Yordenis Ugas stepped in.

Losing to someone as great as Spence might not have convinced Pacquiao to hang his gloves up unless he took a beating. Ugas is a good fighter, but Pacquiao recognized from his decision loss to Ugas that his body just could no longer do what he needed it to do: perform anywhere near the way that led him to world titles and/or championship recognition in eight weight classes (112, 122, 126, 130, 135, 140, 147 and 154), including being the lineal champ at flyweight, featherweight, junior lightweight, junior welterweight and welterweight.

Pacquiao was still good enough in July 2019 to give Keith Thurman his first pro defeat. In Pacquiao’s next outing, against Ugas in August 2021, age and wear and tear had finally caught up. The loss dropped Pacquiao to 62-8-2 (39 KOs).

Pacquiao has participated in a couple of exhibitions in the intervening years but hasn’t shown any signs that he has paused Father Time, never mind that he can turn back the clock. By virtue of his past alone, and the money that is made when he fights, Pacquiao was granted this title shot against Barrios. Will he pull off a miracle against Barrios on Saturday night? Or will Barrios serve as the Hector Camacho to Pacquiao’s Sugar Ray Leonard?

What other fights are on the undercard of Mario Barrios vs. Manny Pacquiao?

The pay-per-view features three undercard fights: the rematch between junior middleweight titleholder Sebastian Fundora and Tim Tszyu, the rematch between junior welterweights Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz and Angel Fierro, and a featherweight bout between Brandon Figueroa and Joet Gonzalez.

Fundora, 22-1-1 (14 KOs), won the WBC and WBO titles from Tszyu in March 2024 in a bloodsoaked fight that saw Fundora fighting through a gushing nose while Tszyu spent 10 rounds dealing with a nasty gash opened high up on his scalp due to his head accidentally leaning into the point of Fundora’s elbow. After spending nearly a year trying to sign a big fight for his first defense, Fundora moved on from waiting on Errol Spence Jnr and instead stopped Chordale Booker in four rounds this past March. Fundora vacated the WBO title in order to make this rematch with Tszyu.

Tszyu, 25-2 (18 KOs), did not have a good 2024. After losing to Fundora in a fight that his corner could have and should have stopped early enough for it to be a “no contest,” Tszyu then signed to take on Vergil Ortiz Jnr, only to have to pull out because his cut had not healed enough. When Tszyu did return, it was in October against IBF titleholder Bakhram Murtazaliev. Tszyu was absolutely battered, getting dropped four times en route to a third-round TKO loss. In his only fight so far in 2025, Tszyu took a confidence booster, taking out Joey Spencer inside of four rounds in April.

Cruz, 27-3-1 (18 KOs), is a fan-friendly former junior welterweight titleholder who took the WBA belt from Rolando Romero in 2024 but lost it to Jose Valenzuela about four months later. Cruz met Fierro this past February on the David Benavidez-David Morrell undercard. What seemed to be going mostly Cruz’s way at first turned into a competitive firefight, one that Cruz won via unanimous decision, and one that was more than entertaining enough to merit this immediate sequel. Fierro is now 23-3-2 (18 KOs).

Figueroa, 25-2-1 (19 KOs), is a former junior featherweight and featherweight titleholder who lost both of those belts to Stephen Fulton. That second Fulton fight was Figueroa’s last appearance, also on the Benavidez-Morrell undercard of and was far clearer in Fulton’s favor than their first go-round. Figueroa will seek to rebound against Gonzalez, 27-4 (15 KOs), a solid fighter who is often the bridesmaid but never the bride. 

Gonzalez’s defeats all came by decision, unanimous losses to Shakur Stevenson and Emanuel Navarrete in title fights in 2019 and 2021, respectively; Isaac Dogboe via split decision in 2022; and Luis Alberto Lopez via unanimous decision in a 2023 title fight. Gonzalez then spent nearly a year and a half away before returning this past March, winning a split decision against the 22-1-1 Arnold Khegai.

The free preliminary show includes three more bouts: former featherweight titleholder Gary Russell Jnr, 31-2 (18 KOs), vs. Hugo Castaneda, 15-2-1 (11 KOs), in a lightweight bout; Alan David Picasso, 31-0-1 (17 KOs), who is the WBC’s No. 1 contender at 122lbs, vs. Kyonosuke Kameda, 15-4-2 (9 KOs); and former featherweight titleholder Mark Magsayo, 27-2 (18 KOs), who dethroned Russell in 2022, vs. Jorge Mata Cuellar, 21-2-2 (13 KOs), in a junior lightweight bout.

The full list of undercard fights can be seen on BoxRec.

David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.