By Dan Ambrose: Floyd Mayweather Jr. (48-0, 26 KOs) says he’ll give Manny Pacquiao a rematch after he comes back next year after his surgery on his injured shoulder. This is the first news that indicates that Mayweather will be fighting beyond his fight next September, which could see Mayweather tie boxing great Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 record.
Mayweather had said that he’ll be retiring after his fight in September against an opponent still to be determined, but it now looks like Mayweather will be giving Pacquiao a second shot by giving him a rematch.
“I will fight him in a year after his surgery,” Mayweather told Stephen A. Smith via text on Tuesday.
Now it remains to be seen whether Mayweather will carry out what he said to Smith by giving the 36-year-old Pacquiao a rematch.
Mayweather has little to gain from fighting Pacquiao a second time other than winning his 50th fight and getting another big payday. If his goal is to maximize his earnings then a second fight against Pacquiao is a smart way to go, even though the fight likely won’t make the same kind of money it did this time.
Whatever Pacquiao does, he can’t come up with another injury excuse if he loses the fight to Mayweather next year.
It would look really bad if Pacquiao revealed after a second fight against Mayweather that he took the fight with a preexisting injury like he did with last Saturday’s fight. Pacquiao came into that fight with an injured right shoulder. He attempted to get a shot of an anti-inflammatory medication before the fight, but the Nevada State Athletic Commission rejected his request because they reportedly didn’t find out about the injury until shortly before the fight.
With an injury as serious as the one Pacquiao had, the smart thing for him to have done would have been a postponement of the fight. Perhaps the injury was something that could have healed with rest, and he could have then rescheduled. But with the extent of the injury now, Pacquiao will be needing surgery to fix the problem and at least 9 to 12 months for him to recover from the surgery.
There’s talk of Pacquiao potentially facing a fine and/or a suspension for Pacquiao having not properly revealed the injury ahead of time. The state attorney’s office is reportedly going to look into the matter. If Pacquiao is suspended, it’s unclear if the suspension will run during Pacquiao’s rehab time or after. If it starts soon, then it’s quite possible that a good portion of it will have been run out by the time Pacquiao is ready to fight again.
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