It has been six years since Mayweather faced Pacquiao in the squared circle, the clash which was touted as the “Fight of the Century” as well as “Battle for Greatness” on 2nd May 2015 in Las Vegas, the fight which saw Mayweather’s WBC, WBA (Super) and Pacquiao’s WBO welterweight belts on the line. “Money” had won the fight via UD.
Fast forward to 2021, Pacquiao is on a two-year hiatus away from boxing and after being made WBA’s welterweight “Champion in Recess”, will be squaring off against the current “Super” champion Yordenis Ugas on 21st August with an aim to regain the title.
However, the eight division world champion’s ambitions aren’t just limited to world titles, as his Trainer Freddie Roach recently dropped the bombshell that both he and ‘PacMan’ want to schedule a rematch with Mayweather.
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Mayweather-Pacquiao 2, an exhibition fight? Roach sees otherwise
However, while Pacquiao is still going strong at 42 years of age, Mayweather bid adieu to the sport after taking his impeccable record to 50-0 in 2017 against UFC superstar Conor McGregor, and has only been featured in exhibition fights.
“We would like to fight Mayweather one more time,” Roach revealed to Sky Sports.
But as Roach sees it, the rematch has to be sanctioned as exhibition boxing isn’t really Pacquiao’s taste.
“But exhibitions? No. Manny is not into that,” Roach went on, “Manny has boxing fans. That’s what we’re after.”
While Mayweather is coming off of an eight round draw against YouTuber Logan Paul, Pacquiao’s next target is Ugas, a replacement for WBC and IBF welterweight champ Errol Spence jr who pulled out of the fight due to an eye injury.
As Roach ruled out any possibility of the rematch happening as an exhibition bout, he also emphasised that Pacquiao’s current focus is on this weekend when he and Ugas head for the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“We are just going one fight at a time. The thing about Manny? He is not just going to pick some guy with a high rating because the world loves him. Manny wants to fight real fighters. He will challenge the best,” Roach added.
