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 (62-8-2, 39 KOs) has not boxed professionally since he dropped a unanimous decision to Yordenis Ugas in August 2021.

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 with the Senate of the Philippines from 2016-22 before an unsuccessful campaign to become president.

Despite officially announcing his boxing retirement in 2021, the eight-division world champion is set to return to finally win the WBC 147lb belt he'd 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 (29-2-1, 18 KOs) are set to meet July 19 in Las Vegas. Barrios is 29.

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

Elsewhere in the rankings, there were no changes in the top four, led by Devin Haney, Souleymane Cissokho, Conor Benn and Egidijus Kavaliauskas.

Pacquiao replaced exciting Japanese puncher Jin Sasaki. 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 while Eimantas Stanionis, who lost for the first time at the hands of Jaron Ennis in April, entered the rankings at No. 8.

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