By Allan Fox: Manny Pacquiao is accusing the retired 42-year-old Floyd Mayweather Jr. of using his name to try and stay relevant in boxing. Mayweather revealed this week that he was paid $2.2 million to make a 10-second video in which he said he was negotiating a fight with the former eight division world champion Pacquiao. Here’s the kicker. Mayweather later said that the [Pacquiao] “fight will never happen.” Mayweather was paid to say the Pacquiao rematch was happening when in reality it wasn’t.
It’s all very strange that Mayweather would agree in the first place to make a short video saying he’ll be fighting Pacquiao when he has no intention of doing so. It’s a bad look on Mayweather’s part, and it’s not surprising that Pacquiao is calling him on it. In a perfect world, Mayweather would want to fight Pacquiao – or any top fighter – to stay relevant. Mayweather’s last two fights have been easy paydays against Conor McGregor and Tenshin Nasukawa, and those are not boxers.
Mayweather says he got paid $2.2 million to make video talking about Pacquiao rematch
“There is a video circulating that I made 8 months ago about a “MAYWEATHER – PACQUIAO” REMATCH. I got paid $2,200,000 to make the video. The truth is, the fight will never happen again. Now, swipe left and look at the money that got wired to me for the video. Now, who’s the smart one ? I’m making millions just for 10 second video drops,” said Mayweather on his Instagram.
Looks like @FloydMayweather is using my name again to get himself some attention. #FunnyMoney pic.twitter.com/rd7fa3EmI0
— Manny Pacquiao (@MannyPacquiao) August 19, 2019
Mayweather putting together a video saying he’s working on a rematch with Pacquiao is crazy. It’s hard for boxing fans to understand why someone would pay Mayweather to do this, but harder still to understand why he’d agree to it. Mayweather’s credibility is going to go down the drain if he’s going to be putting together these type of videos. If the fans can’t trust Mayweather when it comes to him putting together fights, they’ll not want to continue to pay to see him fight. Of course, Mayweather hasn’t fought in four years since his mismatch with Andre Berto in 2015. So, it’s unlikey he has any true intention of coming back to fight a top level boxer in weight class. The chances of Mayweather (50-0, 27 KOs) losing would be too high, and he would his unbeaten record.
Who wants to see Mayweather vs. Pacquiao rematch?
Mayweather has been out of boxing for so long that the fans likely wouldn’t pay to see him fight Pacquiao now. There’s absolutely no demand for this fight at this point, as both guys are viewed as old timers by the younger fans. For all intents and purposes, Mayweather has been out of the sport for ages. Four years is forever in boxing. The younger fans only know Mayweather from his exhibition level fights against MMA fighters McGregor and Tenishin. Those weren’t serious fights. Mayweather has run his career into the ground by facing non-boxers for the last four years, and he could have made far more money if he’d fought once a year against boxers.
The McGregor fight was a one off for Mayweather, as far as Floyd making huge money fighting an MMA guy. Mayweather tried to get a fight against UFC star Khabib Nurmagomedov in another boxing event, it didn’t happen. The decision by Mayweather to fight guys from a different sport hasn’t helped him, because he’s been forgotten. The only way Mayweather is keeping himself relevant now is on social media, and as a promoter.