Filipino icon Manny Pacquiao has been placed at No.5 in the latest WBC rankings, opening the door for him to face Mario Barrios for their welterweight title this summer.

The 46-year-old has not boxed professionally since he dropped a unanimous decision to Yordenis Ugas way back in the August of 2021 which took his record to (62-8-2, 39 KOs).

It seemed as though Pacquiao had drawn a line under his Hall of Fame resume and instead opted to pursue a career in politics. He held a position on the Senate of the Philippines between 2016 and 2022 before an unsuccessful campaign to become president of the country.

However despite officially announcing his boxing retirement in 2021, the eight-division world champion is now set to return with an attempt to finally win the WBC 147lb belt he failed to claim from Floyd Mayweather Jr in their 2015 megafight.

As reported by The Ring’s Mike Coppinger earlier this month, Pacquiao and Barrios are set to meet on July 19 in Las Vegas. At 29, The 29-2-1 (18) champion is nearly 17 years’ his challenger’s junior.

And now the WBC have made the first move en route to sanctioning the showdown by entering Pacquiao at five in their rankings released Monday. It is a bold move given Pacquiao’s only action in four years were two low-key exhibition outings.

Elsewhere in the rankings, there were no changes in the top four, with Devin Haney, Souleymane Cissokho, Conor Benn and Egidijus Kavaliauskas occupying those spots in that order.

Pacquiao replaced exciting Japanese puncher Jin Sasaki at No.5. The 23-year-old dropped out completely after signing to challenge Brian Norman Jr for his WBO title in Tokyo on June 19.

Raul Curiel and Thulani Mbenge stayed sixth and seventh respectively while Eimantas Stanionis, who suffered the first defeat of his career at the hands of Jaron Ennis in April, entered the rankings at number eight.

That meant Abel Ramos (ninth) and Alexis Rocha (10th) were both nudged down a place, forcing Josh Taylor, who returns against Ekow Essuman in Glasgow on May 24, out of the top 10 completely.