By Allan Fox: After his wins over Jessie Vargas last Saturday night, Manny Pacquiao is now ready to start negotiations for a rematch against Floyd Mayweather Jr. Pacquiao says it’s not a problem for the two of them to face each other again. Pacquiao wants to regain the trust of the boxing fans, many of which were upset from their disappointing fight a year ago in May 2015.
Pacquiao was less than his best in that fight due to a shoulder injury that hampered his performance. A lot of fans were angry at the less than exciting performances from Mayweather and Pacquiao in their fight, because the fans had paid so much money to see the fight.
The ticket prices were hiked to an all-time high, as well as the pay-per-view. The fans thought they were getting a great deal. Instead, they saw a boring fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather, and poor undercard of mismatches to go with it.
“If the rematch happens, I want to make sure the fans love it,” Pacquiao said via espn.com “I will give it all I could just to get back the trust of the fans. “I have no regrets because I felt good one week before the fight. In that kind of fight, I hurt my shoulder.”
Pacquiao should have regrets, because the fight with Mayweather was boring beyond belief. The fans paid a premium to see the fight, and they got the type of fight they could see for free on network television. Mayweather and Pacquiao fought like they were they were just going through the motions. They both were set to make a ton of money for the fight and it appeared that they weren’t going to bother trying to earn the money by putting out a lot of effort.
Mayweather was invited by Pacquiao to his fight against Vargas last Saturday night. He attended the fight, and liked what he saw of Pacquiao. However, there haven’t been any discussions of a rematch between Pacquiao and Mayweather. Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum is quietly optimistic that a rematch can get made between the two stars. Arum didn’t say when he would start talks with Mayweather, but it would have to be soon, because they would need to start promoting the fight for it to do well.
Last time, they didn’t need a lot of time effort to promote the Mayweather-Pacquiao match, because the boxing fans were so eager to see the fight. The fight sold itself. This time, it’ll take some effort to try and coax the fans into purchasing the fight on pay-per-view, because the expectations will be low. The fans already saw what happened last time Mayweather and Pacquiao faced each other. Those same fans are not going to be eager to pay big money to see a second helping of Pacquiao vs. Mayweather.
If the Mayweather-Pacquiao rematch does get made, the promoters of the event need to think hard when they decide what price to charge the fans. If they hike the tickets and the pay-per-view to the high prices of the previous Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight, they could wind up shooting themselves in the foot, because fans are probably not going to want to pay high prices for a rematch after paying to see the last turkey between them.
If this were a bad movie, the theaters would need to make a decision to drop the prices or watch few theater goers come see the movie. Somehow, I doubt that the promoters for Mayweather and Pacquiao are going to drop the prices to normal levels. A rematch will likely be another expensive affair for fans. It’ll be up to them if they want to pay the high prices for a second time. If the boxing fans stay away in droves, it would send Mayweather and Pacquiao a big message that they can’t sell their fight like they did the last time.
“There’s no talk of a rematch, but if there is, we can easily talk,” Pacquiao said. “It’s not a problem between us.”
It would be big news if the Pacquiao vs. Mayweather fight can get made, but I don’t know if it’s going to without Pacquiao doing the heavy lifting himself. We saw how it took years for the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight to get put together. In the end, it was Pacquiao that did the hard work by meeting with Mayweather at a basketball game to get the fight put together.
I have a feeling that it’s going to require the same effort by Pacquiao. If he leaves it up to his promoter Bob Arum, I don’t see the fight getting made. If Arum doesn’t make the effort to get the fight put together between Pacquiao and Mayweather, we’ll likely wee Pacquiao fighting Arum’s fighter Terence Crawford next in April 2017.
That’s good for Arum’s Top Rank Company potentially, but it won’t be good for the boxing fans or for Pacquiao if he loses to Crawford. If Pacquiao loses to Crawford, then you can forget about a rematch between Pacquiao and Mayweather. I don’t know that Arum will be able to get the wheels set in motion for the Pacquiao vs. Mayweather fight. It might require that Pacquiao take the initiative.
“Not only for myself, but the fans of boxing (who) want the rematch, then why not? We can easily talk about that. It is not a problem. Because we now have direct contact to them, it would be easier to talk about when there will be a rematch,” said Pacquiao.
If Pacquiao sees the Mayweather fight in those terms in doing it for the fans, then he should call him up on the phone and make the fight happen. I would say that Pacquiao should accidentally bump into Mayweather at another sporting event, but that might be impossible with Pacquiao working a heavy schedule in his senate job in the Philippines. He’s not going to be able to bump into Mayweather if he’s stuck in his home country month after month working hard at his political job. The fans got a bad fight the last time Pacquiao and Mayweather fought each other. At least if they face each other again, they can try and do a better job to give the boxing fans their money’s worth.