The Herd with Colin Cowherd - The W.A.D.E. Concept - Manny Pacquiao vs Mario Barrios For a WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Is a DISGRACE To Boxing..

Episode Date: May 13, 2025

Wade dives into the return of Manny Pacquiao and how facing world champion Mario Barrios could be a HUGE mistake. #Volume #Herd 💥Join The WADE Concept Media Team to get access to EXCLUSIVE perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJb9AgsGZvAIGxP6AGUORAw/join 💥Subscribe to The W.A.D.E. Concept on YouTube!! https://youtube.com/@TheWADEConcept  💥 FOLLOW Me on Twitch!! http://twitch.tv/wadeplem 💥I Have a PO BOX!! You can send me things here: "The WADE Concept" 27758 Santa Margarita Pkwy Box 581 Mission Viejo, CA 92691 Follow me on Twitter and hit me up with any questions or feedback on the videos: https://twitter.com/WadePlem ✅ Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wadeplem ✅ For business inquiries email me here: [e-mail] ✅  #boxing #youtube #mannypacquiaoSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas.

We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick.

Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you. you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel. Help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the ice.

Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Winning on Clay is an art. The rallies are relentless. And at the French Open, only the toughest survive. I'd know. I competed there for decades. Join me, Renee Stubbs, on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast for no nonsense breakdowns of the biggest matches, the toughest players, and the moments that define Roland Garris.

She can win. She's an outsider to win the French fame. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lina Rubakina is arguably the best player in the world right now. And I actually can win on any service. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcasts on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged.

It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days I'd put on 10 pounds, I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, so we are back on the way concept presented by The Ring Magazine. I'm still in North Carolina. Spoiler alert, I will be going to New York this Thursday for the press conference for Edgar Berlanga versus Hamza Shiraz and Shakur Stevenson versus Williams-Apeeda.

Don't miss that one. Live in New York, I'll see you guys there. But today, we are talking about the bizarre world that boxing just exists in. Because in a moment's notice, things can happen that revive the sport, like the Ring Magazine coming into boxing and putting on some pretty awesome fights, even though the fighters themselves didn't necessarily perform. The matchups were cool, and you're getting to see events that are star-studded and have a lot of thought put into matchmaking and X, Y, and Z.

And then we have, you know, the other side. of things, the crossover boxing space and, you know, the KSIs and the Jake Pauls and all those things. And they kind of all exist in their own little framework to a degree. And then out of nowhere, the WBC decides they want their welterweight champion Mario Barrios to defend his belt against Manny Pachiao. And about seven to eight, maybe nine, ten years ago, I would have said, hell's yeah. If we had a Manny Pachiao championship fight. But man, he's been retired for four years. He's 46 years old. his last fight was in 2021 and he lost to Uyghis in a unanimous decision. I watched his exhibition bout against the kickboxer guy in Japan.

That didn't look good. This is a bad idea. A really bad idea. And again, I think people will look at this and go, well, Jake Paul fought Mike Tyson. And yeah, that happened. And I also said that Mike was going to get really badly hurt. And it was a terrible idea for him to do that. And there were some health issues and everything else.

Luckily, Mike didn't get super hurt in the fight. But this is a world championship level fight against a state. winning world champion and manny does not belong in there and again i'm worried that he's going to get hurt badly for the same reasons what i mean the breakdown let's go let's just start here manny pack you out again i just went over it 46 years old um been retired four years lost his last fight he beat keitherman before that but that was 2019 so it's been a while and this is not me discounting who i think is one of the greatest boxers ever and has an argument to be the greatest ever because what he won world championships and how many different divisions eight nine

something crazy like that, they'll never be anybody like Manny Pachial. But let's just look at it and throw away your bias or throw away your fandom of Manny Pachial because, of course, there's going to be a ton of people that watch this. And fair play, right? To those people that want to watch this,

they want to see their guy go out and try to give it his all one more time. And Mario Barrios didn't look super spectacular when he was on the Netflix card, the Jake and Mike card. And he got dropped against the guy in Ramos that's not the best of the best at 147. I mean, we're not talking about

Dron Boots Ennis here, right? Or even Imantostanionis. We're talking about a guy in Barrios who, you know, when he does step up to the elite of the elite level, does tend to fall in those fights. Keith Thurman, Giovante Davis, but does have a win over Ugus. And again, is the belt holder right now. The point I'm trying to make is

Barrios is not even the elite level of 147, at least not in my opinion. He is not the top level of that weight class. I think everybody knows that right now. But it doesn't need to be for Mani to be in a bad position here. because you're talking about a Manny Pachiaw that is not a natural 147 pounder who started his career at 100 and what, six pounds. And just continued to dominate as he moved up in weight.

His power seemed to carry as he moved up and weight. But that was during prime and, you know, toward the latter half of his career. But still, a prime Manny Paciow whose abilities, much like a Mike Tyson as he got older, start to diminish not just because of his age, but because of his fight style, his explosion, the speed of his hands, the speed of his feet. His ability to fight you with his feet inside and still find a lane for his left hand. And I'm not saying those things can't happen. Listen, Mario Barrios just got dropped in his last fight to Abel Ramos, who's not at the top of the top of the elite level skill, in my opinion. So couldn't lightning strike here for many Pac-Yahu, and we see a George Foreman-esque performance?

Maybe. Maybe. But when George Foreman won the heavyweight title at 48 years old, he'd also been back for three years. It wasn't like he just walked right back into a title shot after he had come out of retired. This was George working his way back to a title shot. after winning and losing big fights. Manny, with the time off, now walking straight back into one, and again, Leo, maybe you can throw some clips up from the exhibition that he had in Japan.

I just did not like the slowness of the movement, the stuff that you would not want to see Adam Annie Pachial because they used to be his greatest strengths now becoming his greatest weaknesses, right? The kind of plotting footwork, the reaching for punches, not getting to the target like he normally would against a younger fighter, only because he's older and the other guy's younger. and that's what I potentially see happening here. If Mario Barrios can't beat Mani Pachiao at 46,

he doesn't deserve to hold the WBC belt, but also, why is that even the question? If Mario can't beat him, then he shouldn't hold the belt. If Mario can't beat other actual contenders, he shouldn't hold the belt. Why is Manny Pacquiao the guy brought in to fight for the legitimacy of the WBC at Welter rate? It makes no sense. In fact, it de-legitizes the belt. I've always talked about how the four-belt system doesn't really make a ton of sense

because, yes, you give an affordance to people to become world champions, but it doesn't prove who's actually the world champion until someone grabs up all four belts. It's just common sense. Being a world champion means you are the best in the world. You are the champion of this world at your weight class. We all know right now, at least to me, it's common knowledge, that that's Geron Boots in us.

At 147, he is the best in the world. But he doesn't hold all four belts, so he is only one of the two or three, I guess now, world champions. It doesn't make sense to me, and especially when now you're the WBC and you're like, yeah, let's bring in Manny Pac-Yau to potentially win a world championship. and let's say he pulls it off by some miracle.

Are we going to put Manny Pachiao in there with Boots Ennis? Is that what we're going to do? Of course. I hope not. And again, this is not me trying to be a hater. It's just I don't want to see Manny get hurt. And Barrios, you know, not the biggest puncher in the world, but he can hurt it badly. Because he is a volume puncher and he will be in there against the guy that, again, isn't a natural 147.

Even if he finished his career at 147, that's not where Manny was his best self. He's definitely going to be at a massive size disadvantage here. He's reach, everything. And again, when Mani was in his prime or, you know, honestly, when he was still in his late 30s and early 40s before he retired, he could have handled that. The speed was still there. The consistency was still there. He wasn't running for political office and doing all this other stuff and taking time off. We see this time and time again when a boxer retires takes a long time off and then comes back.

It usually, again, outside of George Foreman, rest in peace, to the goat, it usually doesn't go well. And I don't think this is going to either. And it's clear to me that this is done for, you know, a staging of an event versus. versus the actual competitive nature of the fight. Who knows? Maybe I'm wrong and that Manny still has it, but I'm just going to go with what makes the most sense. The WBC and whoever they partner with on this is going to try to sell tickets off of it.

Okay, that's fine. But what's the point of the belt if this is the match? What are you saying as the WBC to all the actual contenders that you have ranked at Welterway for this belt? When you go, okay, that's fine. You guys worked and you earned it. Again, this is the people that want to talk about the four belt system. You have these rankings.

The WBC right now has deviant. Kevin Haney ranked number one at Welterweight for that belt. Why would you not make that match? Or even someone like Suleiman, the French guy that's ranked number two, or even a Connor Ben, who they have ranked number three in their welterweight system right now. You can't tell me Devin Haney and Barrios is not something you're interested in as a company. I get it. Manny probably sells more than both of those two,

but if we're just talking about selling, if we're just talking about what draws eyes, why are we having Manny fight for a belt in the first place? If Mario wanted to fight Mani, just having vacate the belt. That's fine. If you want to just do a fight, just have him vacate. But the fact that you're bringing in, Manny, and the big draw is Manny can become world champion again

after not taking out any of those names, it does delegitimize that belt. It does de-legitimize the matchup. It makes not almost no, no, it makes absolutely no sense. And again, even if Manny is to win it, fair play, that would be fucking insane, and it would be a massive, massive accomplishment for Manny. What does it say about the specific rankings of certain?

and belt organizations and if they even mean anything or not. Why fight for a number one ranking when someone can come out of retirement and just jump right in front? You know what I'm saying? It just, it didn't make any sense. And again, if it's just a regular matchup, if you go, you know what, we've been working on this, I guess they've been saying for a year now between Barios and Manny Pachioa and they want to do that fight. If that's the fight they want to do, for whatever reason, I think Barios's fan base and Pachios fan base is going to be a massive, entertaining fight that doesn't need a belt, then go do that. Just strip Barios of the belt. the belt ready for two people that are actually in contention that are competing at the world level

currently that deserve an actual shot at the world title so yeah there's just a lot of things about this that i don't like one putting many in there without having a warm up fight for a guy that at 46 years old does need a warm up fight to just make sure and assess that he still has the ability to do this i think is a bad idea putting him in a world title fight after a four-year layoff i think is an even worse idea because what you do is compound the risk of him stepping in because now you could have done a 10 round fight. Now it'll be 12. He hasn't fought in four years. And that was a loss in his last fight in 2021. A light just went out. We're going to keep going. He's at a weight class that just is not his natural high level weight class. And again, I think everybody will know at this point it's clear that the WBC is doing this to cash out on manny's name.

That to me doesn't feel right when it's for a world title. Again, as a pro bout, strip barrios to the belt, two grown men want to get in their inbox, even if, It's not a good idea for Manny. I get it. That's fine. I'd said the same thing about Jake and Mike. It doesn't make a lot of sense, but two grown men and that they can make money doing it. I just hope that everybody knows the risk involved

and how it's a bad idea for the older guy because they're probably going to get hurt very badly. But when you do it at world level, when you do it at world championship level, and you see what Manny looks like right now compared to what he looked like even four years ago, this is a bad idea. That being said, will I watch it?

Yeah, I probably will, because that's kind of my job. Ring Magazine, I'm here. But at the same time, it's not going to be something that I can sit here and go, who, yeah, I'm behind this. This is a great idea. This is something that we should keep doing. We should think about as for the few. No, no.

And this happens in all types of different sports, the nostalgia of yesterday's greats, trying to reap the benefits of today's money or whatever else is going into these conversations. It's usually almost always a bad idea. And this one is as well. And yeah, I don't really know that there's any way to disagree with that. But you guys let me know what you. you think in the comments below. Is this going to go over well? How does Manny Pachial even look

after this four-year layoff? And why is the WBC doing this outside of money? Because I think Manny Pachial could potentially get really badly hurt and I think it's going to be a terrible look to bring him in and usher him into a world title fight at 46 years old with no reason to do it other than just money. But that's what I think. You guys let me know in the comments below. And yeah, like I said, press conference this week in New York. Stay tuned. A ton of content coming. By the If you're not subscribed over on the audio side of all of this, the audio platforms of the way concept presented by the Ring Magazine, make sure you do that at Spotify, at Apple Podcasts.

We have audio stuff coming out all the time you guys want to check out. But stay locked in right here. Oh, Saturday, we're probably going to do a watch party for the Misfits event as well. Stay tuned in for that. I guess we're going to do it here from Chloe Concept HQ. We'll figure that out. But you guys let me know what you think about this. Mani Pachial Mario Mario situation.

I just don't like it. Not for a world title. not after the four-year layoff. It just, it's nonsensical. It doesn't make any sense. But as far as what happens, could Manny pull off a miracle in George Foreman this thing? I don't think so, but maybe. July 19th in Las Vegas, I just think it's going to end bad. But I don't have those answers. So I guess we'll find out. Hey, guys, it's us and the Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas.

We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. First people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it.

Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's. Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes.

Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Winning on Clay is an art. The rallies are relentless. And at the French Open, only the toughest survive. I'd know. I competed there for decades. Join me, Renee Stubbs,

on the Renee Stubbs' tennis podcast for no nonsense break of the biggest matches, the toughest players, and the moments set to find Roland Garris. Genschenwin. She's an outsider to win the French fame. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lennar Rabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now, and I actually can win on any surface. Listen to the Renee Stubb's tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports.

Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.