This Saturday, November 5th sees the return of Manny Pacquiao (58-6-2) to action as he challenges WBO world welterweight champion Jessie Vargas (27-1) in the main event of Top Rank’s latest PPV. Earlier this year, Pacquiao fought Timothy Bradley in a fight that he won, but he promptly retired. The retirement was short lived however and the general consensus was that he looked sharp against Bradley and that he was still a top fighter. It made news that Arum and HBO were not going to work together to distribute this fight. Frankly, the choice of Vargas as the opponent for Pac-man was received in lukewarm fashion by the boxing world and the current line shows Pacquiao a big -800 favorite, with Vargas returning at +550. Pacquiao is a senator in his home country of the Philippines and some think that Pacquiao cannot do that job and continue to box at the world level. Pacquiao has always been famous for his off-court activities which in the past has included playing professional basketball and karaoke singing, but Pac-man reports he has curtailed all his extra curricular activities to concentrate on just boxing and being a senator. A now 37-year old Pacquiao appears to be more focused than ever. Not that Pac-man is looking past Vargas, but this comeback is about pulling a few last paydays for Manny and fights with the likes of Terence Crawford are still out there. Vargas is a fighter who does just about everything to a high level. The one knock on him is that he is not considered powerful, especially at the 147 pound weight class. The thought is that Pacquiao’s style of fighting involves coming forward and throwing a lot of punches and Vargas’ best bet is to hurt and catch Pacquiao as he comes in. Thomas & Mack Center – Las Vegas, Nevada – HBO PPV – Nov 5 Welterweight 12 rounds – Jessie Vargas +550 Manny Pacquiao -800 ___________________________________________________________________________________ Undercard Odds For Saturday’s Top Rank PPV Super Bantamweight 12 rounds – Jessie Magdaleno +195 Nonito Donaire -275 Featherweight 12 rounds – Hiroshige Osawa +1650 Oscar Valdez -4950 Flyweight 12 rounds – Prasitsak Phaprom +1350 Shiming Zou -3250
