Floyd Mayweather Jr. won’t be coming out of retirement to face WBA Super World welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (62-7-2, 39 KOs) in a big money rematch, according to Sean Gibbons of MP Promotions. Sean says he was told by Mayweather, “I’m retired ‘[and] I’m not fighting,” according to Steve Kim.
Mayweather (50-0, 27 KOs) will be missing out on a tremendous payday in fighting a rematch against the 41-year-old Pacquiao, as it’s a fight that a lot of boxing fans are still eager to see.
With the huge money Mayweather can make in a second fight against Pacquiao, it’s hard to believe that he’s not interested in coming out of retirement for this contest.
Of course, Mayweather can still make good money fighting MMA fighters with no background in boxing, so that’s likely the reason he’s interested in fighting Pacquiao again. Former UFC star Conor McGregor remains a viable option for Mayweather in a rematch. Mayweather already beat McGregor by a 10th round knockout in August 2017.
The fight pulled in an incredible 4.3 million buys despite the fact that McGregor was making his debut as a professional boxer, and had virtually zero chance of winning. Unfortunately the fight was more boring than the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, as Mayweather fought seemingly in slow motion, appearing to stay in 1st gear most of the contest. When Mayweather shifted into 2nd gear in the 10th, he stopped McGregor.
Floyd beat Pacquiao by a 12 round unanimous decision five years ago in the ‘Fight of the Century’ on May 2, 2015 in Las Vegas. Although the fight failed to live up to the hype in terms of it being exciting, it broke pay-per-view records in bringing in 4.4 million pay-per-view buys. Mayweather won the fight by the scores 118–110, 116–112, and 116–112. However, the victory was tainted due to Pacquiao having suffered a right shoulder injury before the fight.
The brave Filipino star fought one-handed, and rarely used his right hand to throw shots. Nevertheless it was still a close fight. When Pacquiao attempted to get a rematch, he was ignored.
“Viva’ Gibbons also stated that Manny Pacquiao plans on fighting more than just once in 2020, even with his late start to the year inside the ring… #boxing,” added Steve Kim on his Twitter.
Pacquiao has three excellent options for his next fight in June or July in picking from Errol Spence Jr., Danny Garcia and Shawn Porter for that fight. A fight against Spence will arguably bring in the money for Pacquiao on PPV than a fight with Porter, who was just beaten, and Danny.
Porter and Danny are good fighters, but they’re more B-level guys, who fight well against lesser opposition, but fail when they fight talented guys. Pacquiao won’t be able to bring in PPV buys against Porter and Danny, and that’s likely why he won’t select either of those fighters.
