27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Brandon Figueroa to return on Barrios-Pacquiao card?
Former unified world champion Brandon Figueroa will reportedly face Joet Gonzalez on the undercard of Barrios-Pacquiao.
Figueroa, 25-2-1 (19), was last seen in the ring in February when he lost a unanimous decision to Stephen Fulton in Las Vegas. That fight saw Figueroa lost his WBC featherweight title. It was Figueroa's second decision loss to Fulton, with the pair having also fought in 2021.
Now, it has been reported by Dan Rafael that Figueroa will face Gonzalez as one of the supporting bouts to Barrios-Pacquiao, which takes place on 19 July in Las Vegas. Rafael made the announcement on X (formerly Twitter), citing 'sources'.
It is understood that Pacquiao, at the age of 46, will be fighting a scheduled twelve rounds in an attempt to wrest away Barrios's WBC welterweight championship.
Gonzalez, 27-4 (15), last fought at the beginning of March, taking a split decision over ten rounds against Arnold Khegai in Long Beach. Prior to that, Gonzalez thought in September last year, dropping a unanimous decision to Luis Alberto Lopez for the IBF world featherweight title. Intriguingly, Gonzalez has never been stopped in four losses, with all of those reverses coming at world-title level.
Joining the action on the night will be a reported rematch between Sebastian Fundora and Tim Tszyu. The pair originally met in Las Vegas just over a year ago in a bout that saw Fundora win by split decision over twelve rounds for the WBC and WBO super-welterweight titles. Since then, Fundora has fought once in a bout in March, beating Chordale Booker by technical knockout in four rounds.
Tszyu, meanwhile, suffered a crushing loss in his first fight against Fundora, being demolished in three rounds by IBF super-welterweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliev. Tszyu last fought in April when he stopped Joseph Spencer in four rounds in Newcastle, Australia.
