Pacquiao talks Mayweather rematch

By Boxing News - 10/28/2016 - Comments

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By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao (58-6-2, 38 KOs) says his surgically repaired right shoulder is fixed, and he would welcome a rematch with Floyd Mayweather Jr. if he gets past his title fight against WBO welterweight champion Jessie Vargas (27-1, 10 KOs) on November 5 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Pacquiao doesn’t have much of a chance of Mayweather coming out of retirement to fight him unless perhaps he sees something special from him that would motivate him enough to return to boxing. With Pacquiao fighting Vargas, who is arguably little more than a paper champion, he’s not going in the right direction to try and make that happen.

Pacquiao needs knockouts over high level opposition, and he’s not been doing that in a long, long time. Pacquiao’s last knockout was in 2009 against Miguel Cotto.

“If the Mayweather rematch happens, why not, especially my shoulder is fixed,” said Pacquiao to Fighthub. “We use a lot of right hands now.”

Some boxing fans think Pacquiao never had a shoulder injury. That he just came up with that after the loss escape criticism.

If Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum would stop matching him up against his less than popular fighters in his Top Rank stable, then maybe we could see him earn a fight against Mayweather. It would probably require that Pacquiao beat the likes of Danny Garcia, Kell Brook, Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter, Amir Khan and Errol Spence. In other words, if Pacquiao cleans out the 147lb division by facing the talented and popular welterweights instead of the guys that his promoter Bob Arum has been feeding him, then we could potentially see Mayweather could back to fight Pacquiao for the right price. We’re obviously talking nine-figures for Mayweather to get him to show interest in beating Pacquiao again.

Mayweather has been working out lately in the ring, and that has fueled speculation that he could soon be making a comeback. Pacquiao would be ideal, because he might be able to still bring in the fans if his promoter Arum would start matching him against relevant fighters like Thurman, Porter, Spence, Broner, and Brook. I don’t think Mayweather is going to show any interest whatsoever in beating Pacquiao again if all he’s going to be doing is fighting the likes of Vargas, Brandon Rios and Chris Algieri. I still don’t know why Arum bothered making those fights. Did Pacquiao insist that he fight Rios, Algieri and Jessie Vargas, or was this Arum suggesting to him that he take those fights? Whatever the case, I think Pacquiao’s brand has not been helped with the fights he’s been taking in the last three years apart from his match against Mayweather last year.

Pacquiao had a shoulder injury for the Mayweather fight, and a lot of boxing fans were not pleased at learning afterwards about the injury. For the fans to want to see Pacquiao again, he’ll need to prove that he can beat the real top fighters in the welterweight division.
What is sad is we could see Pacquiao fighting super featherweight Vasyl Lomachenko in early 2017 in a likely catch-weight.

I don’t think that’s a fight that is going in the right direction. You can understand why Arum wants to make the fight, because it’ll likely increase the value of Lomachenko for his Top Rank stable if he fights Pacquiao. But as far as the fight being an interesting one for the casual boxing fans, I don’t see that as being one that will attract fans. The last time I checked, Lomachenko doesn’t have a large built in fan base in the U.S.

It’s a good little fight for the hardcore boxing fans, but there are so few of them in the U.S. You can’t count on the hardcore fans to make a fight between the soon to be 38-year-old Pacquiao and Lomachenko to be a success. Lomachenko was already exposed by Orlando Salido two years ago, and he never avenged that loss. We saw Lomachenko’s limitations as a fighter in that fight, and he’ll stand no chance against a bigger, stronger, and faster Pacquiao.

I’d like to see Pacquiao fight Mayweather again, but I know that it’s not a fight that will happen with the current way that Pacquiao is being matched by Top Rank. You can’t get a Mayweather fight if all you’re doing is fighting Tim Bradley over and over again, or fighting non-popular champions like Jessie Vargas. Pacquiao is going to need to stick his neck out by fighting Thurman, Danny Garcia, Kell Brook or Shawn Porter.

Pacquiao could go to the top of the class for a Mayweather fight if he were to beat Gennady “GGG” Golovkin or Saul Canelo Alvarez and beat one of those two fighters. You would have to believe that Mayweather would be impressed enough with those wins for him to want to come back and beat Pacquiao again. At the same time, Pacquiao’s popularity would be increased if he beat those guys. The fans would want to see him fight again like they used to.

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