IS Manny Pacquiao still willing to do it one more time with rival Floyd Mayweather Jr?
It takes two to tango, and if Mayweather is open to facing his fellow boxing legend again, then Pacquiao is all in.
“Let’s fight again if he (Mayweather) wants. I have no problem with that,” said Pacquiao when asked if a grudge match against the undefeated American is part of his future plans following his return to active fighting last week.
“I’m active now. I don’t pick my opponents. I fight them all.”
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The 46-year-old boxing icon from General Santos City marked his boxing comeback over the weekend when he challenged reigning champion Mario Barrios for the World Boxing Council welterweight crown at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
The 12-round fight ended in a majority draw, though many were of the belief the comebacking Pacquiao, coming off a four-year layoff, did enough to dethrone Barrios and win his 13th world title overall.
In the days leading up to the fight, there were talks about Mayweather and Pacquiao reprising their much-ballyhooed Fight of the Century a decade ago if ever the only eight-time world division champion gets past the 30-year-old Barrios.
There were even whispers of the 48-year-old Mayweather showing up for the Pacquiao-Barrios fight since two fighters seeing action in the undercard are under his Mayweather Promotions.
But a person close to Floyd Jr. said the American Olympian is currently in Paris and didn’t plan to watch the bout.
Still, Pacquiao wasn’t spared questions on another shot at the unblemished record of Mayweather which stands at 50-0 (27 KOs).
Mayweather officially retired from boxing following the 50th win of his career in a 10th round TKO of MMA superstar Connor McGregor in 2017 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
He has since kept busy fighting and earning lucratively in special exhibition matches around the world.
Pacquiao thought Mayweather coming out of retirement is the first step if they’ll have Part II of their 2015 title fight which went down as the richest ever in boxing history.
“You know, it’s hard to talk about a fighter who’s retired already,” said the Pacman, who remained in the US with his family after the Barrios fight to attend the wedding of son Jimuel.
“If he comes out, go sign the contract and we’ll fight.”
Pacquiao lost to Mayweather via unanimous decision in a unification match that broke pay-per-view records in boxing with 4.6 million buys and $410 million in revenues, $400 million in gross revenues, and $72 million in ticket sales.
While a rematch with Mayweather has constantly been floated, the names of Gervonta Davis and Rolly Romero were the most prominent mentioned as possible opponents of the returning boxing superstars after the Barrios fight,
Romero (19-2, 13 KOs) is currently the World Boxing Association welterweight champion, who is coming off a unanimous decision win over Ryan Garcia.
Davis (31-0-1 28KOs) meanwhile, is the reigning WBA lightweight champion, who needs to move up in weight if ever a fight with Pacquiao is made. The ‘Tank’ is fresh from a majority draw against Lamont Roach Jr last March.
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