Several reports coming out of the Philippines continue to put Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao together for a high-profile return.
All the current signs are pointing to a second fight taking place next year, although the nature of the contest is in question.
Mayweather has already confirmed his intentions to pitch the rematch to Japanese investors. The trouble is, it’s only for an exhibition.
The ”Money’ man wrote on Instagram: “Mayweather vs. Pacquiao exhibition Tokyo Japan coming soon Betrnk.com #TMT Japan.”
Mayweather vs Pacquiao rematch
In a video posted alongside it, he added: “Money May, Money May, Money May . . . Money May all day.
“What I’m working on right now is the Mayweather-Pacquiao exhibition right here in Tokyo, Japan. Stay tuned.”
Murmurings from Pacquiao’s camp are already dismissing the notion of any such encounter. They firmly want a full-blooded Pay-Per-View in order to go for redemption.
Back in 2015, Mayweather dominated Pacquiao as he nurse a shoulder injury. Since then, Mayweather has backed away from boxing as the ‘Pacman’ went from strength to strength.
Even at 40 years of age, Pacquiao is hanging with the best welterweights in the world. This is thought to be a major reason for Mayweather only wanting an exhibition.
It’s widely prediction that Mayweather hasn’t trained more than a week since defeating Conor McGregor in 2017. By his own admission, Floyd didn’t even put in the full work for that victory.
Despite fans and Pacquiao wanting it, Mayweather would probably need at least four to six months to get ready for the bout – that’s if negotiations were successful.
For now, ‘MayPac 2’ seems to be a mere pipe dream. And unless Mayweather says it himself, those clamoring for the legends to get it on again are set to be disappointed.
ARUM
Pacquiao’s old promoter Bob Arum had some advice for the Senator in a recent exclusive interview with WBN.
The 87 year-old Hall of Famer stated Pacquiao should fiercely pursue Mayweather before retiring himself.
“Pacquiao, I promoted him for many, many years. He’s an exceptionally good human being, really a fine guy, extraordinarily charitable and a delight,” Arum exclusively told World Boxing News.
“But he’s (almost) 41-years-old. And if you’re 41 you can’t take punishment. You can’t take blows like he did in the Thurman fight.
“Sure, he won that fight – but he took a lot of punishment. That punishment is going to have a serious effect on how he lives the rest of is life.”
On Mayweather, Arum stated: “The fact is, they’ll make a lot of money and nobody gets hurt. They can both laugh their way all to the bank. So if Manny can make that fight then, of course, he should take it.
“That’s up to Floyd. Remember Floyd’s made throughout his career an enormous amount of money. He has an enormous amount of money, so the question is, does Floyd want to spend time, real quality time, training for a fight with Pacquiao, a serious fight?
“Does he want to spend all that time and effort, to up his lifestyle to fight a Pacquiao? You’d have to ask Floyd that question.”
