Pacquiao denies speaking with Mayweather about rematch

By Boxing News - 10/11/2015 - Comments

Mayweather and PacquiaoBy Allan Fox: Despite the reports that Manny Pacquiao said had discussions with Floyd Mayweather Jr. about a rematch in 2016, Pacquiao is saying that he didn’t have any talks with Mayweather. However, Pacquiao says he’d be interested in fighting Mayweather, Juan Manuel Marquez, Tim Bradley and Amir Khan.

Pacquiao plans on fighting only one more time and then retiring from the sport if he gets elected into the senate in the Philippines in May. Pacquiao seems to be pretty confident about getting elected. But if he doesn’t then it’s going to be interesting to see if he chooses to hang up his gloves after one more fight.

If Pacquiao loses again, then he likely will retire even if he doesn’t get elected to the senate next year. Pacquiao’s ego probably wouldn’t let him stand continuing with the sport if he starts losing over and over.

“No, I didn’t talk to him. But I did talk to Bob,” said Pacquiao via RingTV.com.

Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum said last week that he had no discussions whatsoever with Mayweather about a rematch with Pacquiao, and he didn’t understand at all what this talk was of a rematch between them because it had never happened as far as he was concerned.

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“No idea what he’s [Pacquiao] talking about,” Arum said to Yahoo Sports about the reports that Pacquiao had been saying they were in talks with Mayweather about a rematch. “Mayweather is retired and I take him at his word.”

Pacquiao doesn’t have great choices for his next fight. Arum is mentioning Terence Crawford and 42-year-old Marquez as options, and it’s pretty clear that those are the guys that he’s interested in matching against Pacquiao, even though he’s mentioned Khan’s name all along the way. It doesn’t seem likely that Arum will give Khan the fight when he’s got Crawford or the proven Marquez.

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The money that Pacquiao could make for a Marquez fight could be good if the fans are willing to pay to see Pacquiao fight an older guy with a bad knee like him. Marquez has been out of the loop for so long that the casual boxing fans might not be interested in paying to see a Pacquiao-Marquez fifth fight.

Arum is obviously hoping that the fans will pay to see yet another fight between them, but he could find out the hard way that the interest isn’t there for an overplayed fight series like the Pacquiao vs. Marquez one.

If I were to guess, I’d say that Mayweather is going to stay retired until he burns though a significant portion of his huge fortune. That could take him another five years, or maybe even less, but I do see Mayweather spending his entire down to where he’ll need to return to the ring in a short period of time. Unfortunately that probably won’t be until Pacquiao is long gone from the sport, and Mayweather’s opportunities for big money fights will be pretty much nowhere unless he wants to make a comeback fight against a Golovkin if he’s still around.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8Svii4R95k

As for Mayweather fighting Pacquiao next year, I’d say the chances of that fight happening are around zero. Mayweather will likely not be interested in coming back for another Pacquiao fight despite the huge money that he can make. I suspect Mayweather will eventually regret not making a return to fight Pacquiao in five years from now.



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