Mayweather denies Pacquiao rematch rumors
Credit to Author: JOSEF T. RAMOS, TMT| Date: Mon, 19 Aug 2019 16:19:26 +0000
Retired boxer Floyd Mayweather, Jr. denied any comeback fight that would lead to his potential rematch with reigning World Boxing Association super welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao in the Middle East.
In reaction to the social media video appeared in Arabnews.com last Sunday, the undefeated Mayweather (50-0 record with 27 knockouts) said the video was recorded a long time ago.
“The video that you all been seeing is false because I’ve been went to Saudi Arabia. I went there a long time ago,” Mayweather told Ben Thompson of Fighthype.com.
Mayweather stated also to Fighthype.com that his visit to Saudi Arabia was in January — nearly nine months ago.
“I talked to them about me fighting there, just different fights, but they wanted me to specifically say Manny Pacquiao. And actually, we didn’t just talk about boxing; we talked about different events; us bringing different events out there,” added Mayweather.
Mayweather concluded in his interview that he won’t be coming out of retirement and there would be no any rematch with Pacquiao (62-7-2 win-loss-draw record with 38 knockouts).
Mayweather beat Pacquiao via unanimous decision last May 2, 2015 in Las Vegas. That fight was one of the richest boxing bouts, paying Mayweather a purse of $180 million while Pacquiao earning $120 million.
For the part of Manny Pacquiao camp, MP Promotion President Sean Gibbons said that they were “unaware” of any news about rematch coming from Mayweather.
“100 percent the Senator (Pacquiao) is completely unaware of anything,” Gibbons, also the right-hand man of senator Pacquiao, told The Manila Times in a phone interview also on Monday.
“At 400 million US dollars, the senator will be shadow boxing in his parking lot,” added the international matchmaker if ever Mayweather would have a sudden change of heart. “But as of now, we are really unaware of anything.”
After beating Andre Berto last September 12, 2015 by unanimous decision, Mayweather retired while Pacquiao continuously fights.
Pacquiao won five of his last six fights after Mayweather’s retirement.
He beat Timothy Bradley last April 9, 2016 by unanimous decision in Las Vegas, then defeated Jessie Vargas also by unanimous decision last November 5, 2016 in Las Vegas.
He only lost to Australian Jeff Horn by unanimous decision last July 2, 2017 in Brisbane, Australia.
He scored seventh round technical knockout victory against Lucas Matthysse last July 15, 2018 for his comeback win in Malaysia.
After that, Pacquiao beat Adrien Broner last January 19 in Las Vegas before winning recently over Keith Thurman last July 20 via split decision capturing the World Boxing Association super welterweight world title also in Las Vegas.