With UFC boss Dana White pouring some major cold water on the possibility a Floyd Mayweather-Khabib “super-fight,” it looks as though “Money” will have to look elsewhere for his next nine-figure payday. Mayweather seems to be set to fight again and it now looks as though his only “safe” mega-fight is that talked of return meeting with Manny Pacquiao; the man he so soundly outboxed in May of 2015. The fight, such a let-down after all the years of hype, basically sucked. Yet now we could be close to seeing it happen all over again.
When we look back, there was no way the so called “Fight of The Century” was ever going to live up to the huge hype the welterweight showdown enjoyed. So here in late 2018, is there any reason at all to think a return fight between these two, now even older stars would be/will be any different in 2019? Pacquiao is said to be “90-percent” close to a January fight with one-time ‘Mayweather clone’ Adrien Broner, and should he win that one, it could be time to brace ourselves for May-Pac II. Is anyone excited?
Mayweather, way too fast, clever, defensively skilled and also so much the bigger man physically, won, really, with some ease in fight-one. No-one likes repeats but how on earth could one be avoided between these two greats who are now both in their 40s? Pac-Man, nowhere near the explosive, relentless dynamo he once was, had only fleeting moments of success against Floyd, and even though Manny looked good against Lucas Matthysse in the summer this is no reason to think he will do so against the defensive master, AKA, “T.B.E.” The first fight wasn’t even a fight, not in the full sense of the word.
Mayweather was in control throughout in the 2015 bout, taking the occasional hard left hand that Pacquiao did land with but nothing more. It was an enjoyable night for the fans of Mayweather’s own blend of defensive, safety-first genius (and these people are out there), but it’s hard to see how anyone else enjoyed the biggest money fight in boxing history. Will we really pay for a sequel and help fatten up Floyd’s bank account all over again?
“A sucker is born every minute,” a famous promoter extraordinaire once said. This may be true, but are there close to a million suckers out there who will fall for a Mayweather-Pacquiao II the way over four million suckers fell for the first fight? Surely not.