Floyd Mayweather Jr. announced on his Instagram that he’s coming out of retirement to fight Manny Pacquiao in what he expects to be a return match with a huge purse.
“I’m coming back to fight Manny Pacquiao this year,” said Mayweather, who ran into Pacquiao in an event in Japan. He said: “Another nine-figure payday on the way.”
Much earlier last year, Senator Pacquiao has called on Mayweather to come out of retirement for a rematch, saying “let’s do a second one” after powering to his first KO win against Matthysse in nine years.
Mayweather and Pacquiao were seen on video talking about a potential fight. The Black American boxer was even heard on TV telling the eight-division champion: “I don’t want to be hearing “Oh, my shoulder hurts.”
It was in 2015 when the first fight between Mayweather (50-0) and Pacquiao (60-7-2) generated a combined purse of around $300 million for the two fighters.
Mayweather won that fight via unanimous decision for the WBA World super welterweight and the unified WBO and WBC World welterweight belts.
Pacquiao said that he fought Mayweather with an injured shoulder, which wasn’t revealed prior to the highly-anticipated bout.
If Mayweather comes out of retirement, this will be the third time he did so after coming out of retirement to settle things with UFC superstar Conor McGregor. He won via 10th round technical knockout.
Pacquiao, meanwhile, is coming off his most dominant win in the past decade, beating Lucas Matthysse in 12th rounds last July.
It’s been three years since Floyd Mayweather Jr. handily defeated Manny Pacquiao in one of the most hyped bouts this century.
Now, the 41-year-old undefeated boxer is ready to give Pacquiao another shot at beating him. At least according to his Instagram, that is.
Mayweather-Pacquiao return match will happen soon
In a video posted on social media, Mayweather announced that he’s coming out of retirement for another fight with Senator Pacquiao. The first fight was shown in pay-per-view television that totalled more than 4.6 million buys, breaking viewership records in the United States.
Back in 2015, Mayweather’s contract guaranteed him a purse of $100 million for the fight, though he ended up earning more than double that amount after beating Pacquiao by unanimous decision.
He probably expects to earn a bigger amount this time around. In contrast, Pacquiao (60-7-2) went home with $160 million after his first fight against Mayweather. But boxing promoter Bob Arum does not appear to be interested. He’d rather promote younger boxers.