Manny Pacquiao believes long-term rival Floyd Mayweather is "scared to death" of pursuing an illustrious second meeting.
Pacquiao will return to the ring in his maiden exhibition appearance this weekend when he takes on Korean YouTuber DK Yoo at the Seoul Arena in South Korea on Saturday night. The Filipino star retired after a devastating defeat to Yordenis Ugas last year, but after coming up short in his presidential campaign he elected to make his return away from the professional ranks.
Since announcing the relaunch of his career on the exhibition circuit, fans have continually begged for both Mayweather and Pacquiao to stage a rematch of their infamous 2015 clash which ended in defeat for the Filipino. But Pacquiao has accepted it is unlikely he will receive a second opportunity, particularly with his demand for a professional fight.
"I don’t think he will do a rematch with me, Floyd. I don’t think so," Pacquiao said during an interview with FightHype. “What I thought is [that] he’s scared to death to fight again. And that’s my analysis and thought pretty much with him.
“Well, I can beat him easily. I don’t want an exhibition fight with him. I want a real fight – a 12-round fight with him. Currently we have an obligation to fight DK Yoo in an exhibition match, I am focused also for that but I hope the fans will watch it to see my style. But we will see after that."
Pacquiao was outpointed by Mayweather but both men earned a hugely lucrative purse with the event still ranked as the largest selling pay-per-view event with an excess of five million sold globally. 'Money' himself has been fighting in lucrative exhibitions and recently completed his fifth against YouTube star Deji in Dubai.
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While at his previous clash with Mikuru Asakura earlier in the year, Pacquiao visited his former rival and the pair shook hands in public after discussing a rematch. Despite Mayweather previously suggesting he would not put himself in harms way, he did suggest he would be open to risking his record one final time.
But he has warned Pacquiao not to get tricked into accepting a second showdown with him and believes there is no way he would be beaten. "There's no blueprint on how to beat Floyd Mayweather, he can tell you that himself," Mayweather said. "He's a Hall of Famer, but no-one has the blueprint on how to beat Floyd Mayweather. Don't let them trick you into getting your ass whooped again.
"I'm not here to talk about your personal life, when we talk about what's going on in the squared circle, I'm the best. No matter how you rate it, no matter how you cut it, no matter how you slice it, if you go 100 years back, 300 years back, to now, there's only one best, and thats Floyd Mayweather."
