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Zenger
Zenger
Sport
Miriam Onyango

Pacquiao Says He Is Fighting Mayweather In December

Manny Pacquiao (R) from the Philippines, trades blows with Floyd Mayweather Jr. Manny Pacquiao claims he is in discussions with Floyd Mayweather for their much anticipated rematch in December. JOHN LOCHER/AP.

The first fight took place, years too late and the rematch might take place eight years too late as well. Although it will only be an exhibition fight, 44 year old retired Philippino boxer Manny Pacquiao claims he is in discussions with Floyd Mayweather Jr. ,46, a retired American professional boxer from Michigan, U.S. for their much anticipated rematch in December.

Although the fight hasn’t been confirmed, it could happen.

Manny Pacquiao (62-8-2, 39 KOs) is eager to battle Gervonta Davis and Amir Khan as well. It’s unclear if he hopes Saudi Arabia will want to foot the bill for holding these displays there, and if If so, his presence in Saudi Arabia would make sense.

Since Floyd Mayweather Jr. (50-0, 27 KOs) and Manny Pacquiao are both in their mid-40s and are no longer as well-known as they once were, fans won’t be willing to pay to watch them in their prime.

Should the fight go down, it would be an instance of a battle that Mayweather allowed to marinate for too long. He waited six years to face Pacquiao in a bout that generated 4.4 million pay-per-view purchases, 

Floyd ought to have called up the rematch with Pacquiao in 2015 instead of waiting until eight years after he became too old to fight. It was not clever to have waited this long to try to sell a rematch on pay-per-view with Pacquiao.

Although Mayweather was hailed as a genius, in actuality, he was too slow to challenge Pacquiao, waiting to face him until the Filipino fighter had just lost consecutively to Tim Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez.

Had Mayweather faced Pacquiao before to his defeat by those two, the bout most likely would have generated higher pay-per-view revenue.

“I have an exhibition match coming in December in Japan,” said Manny Pacquiao in media reports.

“We’re working on the opponent. We’re working with Mayweather. Yes,” said Pacquiao  when asked whether he was facing Mayweather in an exhibition match.

“If he wants,” said Pacquiao responding to why he will not  fight Mayweather for real in a non-exhibition match. 

“We’re still working on it,” said Pacquiao. 

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