Manny Pacquiao can be 80 years old, and if he steps into the ring he will still make his opponent feel a certain way. That's what happens when facing an icon of the sport, regardless of where that icon is in real-life or boxing years.

WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios will be that opponent Saturday when he defends his title against Pacquiao in Las Vegas. Barrios is 30 years old. Pacquiao is 46, a few weeks removed from his International Boxing Hall of Fame induction, but nearly four years removed from his last fight.

One can assume that Barrios is feeling something that he's never felt before, but unless you've been there, everything else is just speculation.

Chris Algieri has. While the former WBO junior welterweight champion already has a positive reputation as a broadcast analyst, he really proves it with his description of what it's like to fight Pacquiao.

"It wasn't just a fight, it was an experience," Algieri tells The Ring, having lost a 12-round unanimous decision and his 20-0 record to Pac-Man in 2014.

"We did a seven-city press tour, flew all over the world, dealing with tons of fans. I was signing people's foreheads. It's a wild, wild experience. Fight week is crazy, the media obligations, intensity of every part of the sport gets heightened when you're in a fight of that magnitude with a guy like Pacquiao and, yeah, it can take you over.

"Then on top of it, I don't know how much talent is left, but he's such a talented guy: physically, boxing, everything. He's one of the best of our generation. That is all-encompassing in the experience of fighting Manny Pacquiao."

Regardless, with a 16-year edge in age, a four-fight unbeaten streak and the confidence that comes with being a reigning world champion, Barrios should walk through the returning Pacquiao. But we've all seen the recent views of the Filipino icon in the gym, his trademark handspeed and all that nostalgic gold. So are we being lured in by the romantic notion of him turning back the clock once more, even if just for one night?

"One, it's the romantic notion and two, it's the nostalgia. You see him back at Wild Card with Freddie Roach, throwing those blistering combinations, the footwork, the morning runs with the whole team, him running with a towel wrapped around his fist. It's all nostalgia."

But here's the thing: fighters don't get old in the gym; they get old in the ring. Manny can look great in the gym, but it's all about what he's going to look like Saturday.

Algieri, set to co-host a live chat on fight night from Vegas on PPV.com, knows what it's like when you show up one night and it's just not there anymore. The Long Island, New York, native was on a four-fight winning streak and within striking distance of another big fight when he travelled to Liverpool, facing then-unbeaten welterweight contender Conor Benn in December 2021.

He was 37, and felt it.

"Oh, I felt it way before that," said Algieri, who lose by fourth-round stoppage to Benn on British shores.

"I felt it way before that fight. I was just shy of 38 when I fought Benn, and he's a 25-year-old. My thirties were riddled with injuries, layoffs and just realizing that my 35-year-old body was different than my 25-year-old body. I didn't have the same engine. My reactions and boxing IQ was still good, conditioning too, but it was just different and that was noticeable.

"Even towards the end, I didn't want to retire after the Benn fight. I wanted to move back down to 140 and keep looking for a title, but I couldn't get through a training camp. I kept getting hurt, so that's why I ended up packing it in. The body doesn't want to conform, it doesn't want to keep competing at that level. So it's really amazing that Manny's still going."

Pacquiao enjoyed a three-fight stretch where he beat Lucas Matthysse, Adrien Broner and Keith Thurman in between July 2018 and the following summer, though was far removed from his prime years at the time. When he returned against short-notice opponent Yordenis Ugas in August 2021, it was painfully clear that this was the end.

Until it wasn't, and here we are again. Can he do the impossible?

"Manny is the guy who has upset the odds over and over again, and he prides himself on that," Algieri continued.

"Is it possible for him to pull this off? I believe yes, because the last thing to go is your punch. Manny can punch and Barrios gets hit, he's been down, his face gets really marked up in fights against guys that are not world class, and he likes to engage. The fact that Manny came back, he did for a reason. He sees a way he can win, and I don't think he's completely delusional."

Their championship contest tops a stacked Premier Boxing Champions card with two world title fights, budding contenders and returning former titleholders all featuring on another busy night of boxing to cap Prime Video's coverage ($79.95 PPV) in Las Vegas.