The Rumor Mill: Barrios defending the WBC title against a legend?

As we go into the year 2025 there have been a number of fights scheduled to take place within the first few months of the year. Headliners such as Tank Davis vs Lamont Roach Jr., David Benavidez vs David Morrell Jr., and Artur Beterbiev vs Dmitrii Bivol will all take place before the end of March. There is also reports that Teofimo Lopez will face Subriel Matias in New York by mid-March. This gives the sport some juice for the first half of the year. While there are more fights being lined up to take place that could include fighters like Canelo Alvarez, Jaron Ennis, and Terence Crawford, another fighter could end up being part of one of the biggest fights of the year.

WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios (29-2-1, 18 KOs) had an eventful 2024 with a win over Fabian Maidana and draw with Abel Ramos, with the latter being his first defense of the WBC title. Barrios has been a topic of conversation in the welterweight division over the past five months as he has been linked to potential bouts against Ennis and also WBA welterweight champion Eimantas Stanionis. According to reports, a fight between Barrios and Ennis fell through because of the opportunity that Barrios had to face Ramos on the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson card. Now Barrios may be involved in another bout that will not be a unification but possibly get him more money than he could get fighting anyone else.

Some time ago, there were rumblings that a Hall of Famer could return to the ring professionally and challenge Barrios for that WBC title. Thing is that fighter was recently named as an inductee…earlier this month Manny Pacquiao was one of the fighters named in the 2025 International Boxing Hall of Fame class. It has been almost four years since his last pro bout against Yordenis Ugas, and the 46 year old was in an exhibition fight against Rukiya Anpo in late July. He didn’t look good in that bout but that still didn’t deter some people to say that “Pacman” could still compete against a champion like Barrios.

For Barrios, it would be an opportunity to fight and potentially defeat a legend in Pacquiao. In addition to that, it would easily get Barrios his highest payday of his career if that is the fight that eventually materializes…unless someone takes the fight from Manny…

Hold on…if there is any chance that another fighter would challenge Mario Barrios for that WBC title that is a legend, who could that be???

Stay tuned…