Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao rivalry ensues
Nine years on from their historic welterweight showdown and Floyd Mayweather’s rivalry with Manny Pacquiao is still going strong.
Now, ‘The Best Ever’ has clapped back at the Filipino after he prematurely announced that the pair will lace up the gloves once again for an exhibition in 2024.
Mayweather comfortably disposed of ‘Pac-Man’ when they met in 2015, winning a unanimous-decision with one card reading as wide as 118-110 against boxing’s only ever eight-division world champion.
Since retiring two years later, Michigan’s Mayweather has made a habit of boxing in lucrative exhibitions, appearing in as many as seven unofficial bouts since calling time on his career.
Back in December, Pacquiao confirmed that he would go toe-to-toe with Mayweather for a second time, in yet another exhibition, but in an interview with ‘The Pivot’, 46-year-old Mayweather explained how costly those words were for his rival.
“When Manny Pacquiao spoke about that, he shouldn’t have, because there is a time and a place for everything. I’m not going to say that he is right and I’m not going to say that he is wrong, but it is so crazy because when he spoke about it, I could’ve easily come out and said ‘yeah’. You spoke about it, so I didn’t have to say nothing. Just by you saying my name, they gave me a cheque for four million [dollars].
“He said my name when he wasn’t supposed to.
“Remember, he got famous because they said that this could be the guy to possibly dethrone the king. Did it happen? Absolutely not. Was it easy? Absolutely.”
Despite their disagreements, it seems that Mayweather-Pacquiao II will go ahead, with the pair expected to clash in Japan later this year.