Joe Cordina’s camp has agreed to terms for a fight with Manny Pacquiao in Cardiff, according to Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn. The same man who delivered the news immediately tapped the brakes on it. Speaking to the media on Thursday, Hearn made clear the yes is coming from one side only.
“We’ve agreed to terms to fight Manny Pacquiao but we don’t know if that’s happening, from our side we’ve agreed to do it,” Hearn said, as reported by Bloody Elbow. MiddleEasy also reported that the purse is settled on Cordina’s end while the matchup itself remains unconfirmed.
The target is the Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua card on December 11 at the Principality Stadium, a fight that took months and months of negotiating to land. Pacquiao’s spot on that event was confirmed a few weeks ago. The opponent was the open question, and the early shortlist read like a British boxing reunion tour: Amir Khan, Jack Catterall and Kell Brook. Cordina wasn’t on it. Now he’s the one with his hand up, fighting in his home country on the biggest night the UK scene has had in years.
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Where both men stand
Cordina is 34 and hasn’t fought since last December, when he beat Gabriel Flores Jr. by unanimous decision to win the WBO International Lightweight title. The lone loss on his record came against Anthony Cacace in 2024.
Pacquiao is 47. His last fight was in July of last year, a majority draw with Mario Barrios that the WBC was happy to sanction. Since then, his schedule has been a graveyard of announced fights. Netflix announced a Floyd Mayweather rematch at the Sphere in Las Vegas, and fans are still waiting on it. A bout with Ruslan Provodnikov was set for this past April before the event got canceled. Shakur Stevenson was in talks too, but according to reports Netflix didn’t want to pay four mega purses and Stevenson got priced out. He left Zuffa Boxing shortly after, ending a partnership that lasted a few months and produced zero fights.
Mayweather, meanwhile, has wandered off toward Ryan Garcia. Garcia says he’s agreed to defend his WBC welterweight title against Floyd in 2027, and BetOnline.ag opened Garcia at -400 with Mayweather at +300. So the Pacquiao rematch looks even further from the front of the line.
The Fury vs. Joshua card has its own side drama, with Hearn insisting Dana White and the UFC aren’t doing the production.
Quick take
I love this for Cordina. A guy coming off a 10-month layoff gets a shot at a legend, in Cardiff, on the undercard of Fury vs. Joshua? That’s the kind of opportunity you say yes to before the phone finishes ringing, and his team did exactly that. The problem is the name on the other side of the contract. Pacquiao’s last year and change has been a parade of fights that existed on press releases and nowhere else, so Hearn hedging in the same breath as the announcement is the most honest thing anyone in boxing has said this month. The ball sits with Team Pacquiao, and December 11 is about seven weeks away.
