Floyd Mayweather Jr. said Thursday that his planned rematch with Manny Pacquiao was still being negotiated.
Mayweather, speaking at the media day for his scheduled June 27 exhibition with Greek kickboxer Mike Zambidis, said an announcement regarding the Pacquiao bout should come within the next couple of days.
“The sport of boxing has truly changed, you have a lot of new companies, a lot of new faces and Netflix,” Mayweather said. “I truly think we’ll get this done; we’re almost at that finish line to finish the Pacquiao fight. A lot of things have changed in the sport of boxing and I think within the next 48 hours … the Pacquiao fight should be done.”
Mayweather didn’t further clarify where the fight would take place or if it would be a sanctioned professional fight or an exhibition.
Initially announced in February as a sanctioned bout to take place Sept. 19 at Sphere, Mayweather in March told the Review-Journal that the fight was going to be an exhibition and that the Sphere was not locked in as the venue. He made the statements after the bout had been advertised by both Netflix, which was set to air the fight live, and Sphere, where the fight was to take place.
That initial response by Mayweather was met by disappointment by Manny Pacquiao Promotions CEO Jas Mathur, who said Mayweather signed multiple contracts, and received advances on those and that the 50-0 fighter also took a loan out against his fight purse for the bout. Mathur said that Mayweather was subject of penalties in the tens of millions of dollars range, should he pull out of the fight.
Pacquiao also said during an interview that he would only fight Mayweather if it were a sanctioned fight and not an exhibition.
The planned Sept. 19 fight date at Sphere was filled by the Eagles, who added more dates to their residency at the $2.3 billion arena.
The fight could be moved to MGM Grand Garden Arena or T-Mobile Arena, with discussions on the having occurred recently, but no major traction has been made as of Thursday, a person with knowledge of the situation told the Review-Journal.
BZA public relations firm, who was helping promote the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Mayweather’s comments.
Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X.
