MANILA – WBA welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao and undefeated boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. teased each other with a possible rematch for the former’s belt this December.
Mayweather, who has not fought in the ring for over a year, posted a video on Instagram on Saturday night talking to Pacquiao during a chance encounter in Japan about a possible rematch.
“I’m coming back to fight Manny Pacquiao this year another 9-figure pay day on the way,” wrote Mayweather.
Pacquiao seemed to have affirmed the possible rematch as he also posted the same video on Facebook and Twitter later that night with the caption, “50-1 #NoExcuses.”
Mayweather and Pacquiao first faced each other on May 3, 2015 at MGM Grand Garden Arena where the Las Vegas native ran away with a 118-110, 116-112 and 116-112 unanimous-decision win.
It took Pacquiao and Mayweather five years to hammer out a deal to face each other in a fight that finally gave fans the chance to see the best pound-for-pound fighters of their generation face off.
The two nearly came to terms in 2009 a month after Pacquiao demolished Miguel Cotto. But negotiations fell apart when Pacquiao and Top Rank promoter Bob Arum opposed Mayweather’s demand for a random drug testing.
In the next four years, there were a lot of attempts for renegotiation. In 2011 then HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg tried to mediate the negotiations but nothing positive came out of it.
In 2012 Mayweather, who was in Las Vegas, called Pacquiao, who was in General Santos City, and offered him a guaranteed $40 million but with no pay-per-view upside. Pacquiao declined the offer.
Mayweather (50-0-0, 27 KOs) last stepped in the ring when he scored a victory over Conor McGregor in August 2017 while Pacquiao came from a technical knockout win over Lucas Matthysse in July./PN
