Report: Manny Pacquiao returning to fight Adrien Broner

With Saul "Canelo" Alvarez set to fight in September, there has been a lot of discussion about who he is going to meet in the ring. There's still a while to go before the big Gennady Golovkin fight goes down (in fall of 2017), so you'd expect that he's not going to face any major challengers to keep that fight in place.

So that's why it's very strange that Golden Boy VP Eric Gomez said they were interested in setting up a bout between Canelo and recently-retired Manny Pacquiao.

What is even stranger? Gomez told Boxing Scene that they couldn't get Pacquiao - because he's already scheduled to fight.

"We're close to finalizing an opponent. We have a short list. We're very close. We'll be announcing it shortly but one of the guys we were interested in was Pacquiao. We'd love to do a Pacquiao fight but from what we hear he has a deal to fight Adrien Broner."

Pacquiao (58-6-2, 38 KO), an eight-division champion, retired after a win over Timothy Bradley in April. This is boxing after all, so retirements don't mean much. The fact that he's facing Broner (32-2, 1 NC, 24 KO) is pretty surprising though. Broner, a four-division champion, rebounded from a loss to Shawn Porter with two wins, most recently defeating Ashley Theophane by TKO. Broner didn't make 140 pounds for that fight though, so he lost his WBA Light Welterweight title on the scales.

It's unclear when such a bout would take place, or if it would be at 140 or 147 pounds. But it's certainly an interesting fight - the brash Broner would definitely talk it up, and it's a pretty big challenge for Pacquiao at the end of his career. Hopefully it actually happens.