{"id":12691,"date":"2016-05-04T08:03:07","date_gmt":"2016-05-04T15:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/a-year-later-could-mayweather-and-pacquiao-do-it-again\/"},"modified":"2016-05-04T08:03:07","modified_gmt":"2016-05-04T15:03:07","slug":"a-year-later-could-mayweather-and-pacquiao-do-it-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/a-year-later-could-mayweather-and-pacquiao-do-it-again\/","title":{"rendered":"A year later, could Mayweather and Pacquiao do it again?"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAS VEGAS <\/strong>\u2014 They met a year ago this week in a fight that was the richest ever, even if it disappointed most of the millions who watched it.<\/p>\n

Now there are rumblings, however slight, that Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao might be persuaded to do it again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say there is a possibility a rematch happens, yes,\u201d promoter Bob Arum said Monday. \u201cHow big a possibility that is, I can\u2019t really measure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayweather helped stir speculation over the weekend by saying in a Showtime interview that he might be persuaded to come out of retirement if the money was big enough. He said he had talked to Showtime and CBS about another fight and that \u201csome crazy numbers have been thrown my way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Mayweather wasn\u2019t asked specifically about Pacquiao, the Filipino might be the only opponent who can help him reach those numbers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I came back, of course, it would have to be a nine-figure payday and probably a championship fight and a nine-figure payday,\u201d Mayweather said.<\/p>\n

Showtime executive vice president Stephen Espinoza said he is among the minority in boxing who believe Mayweather won\u2019t come back. But Espinoza said he also believes a second fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao would do well.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us here would love to see that fight again, or any other fight with Mayweather,\u201d Espinoza said.<\/p>\n

There wouldn\u2019t seem to be a great appetite among boxing fans for a rematch of the bout that sold 4.6 million pay-per-views, but got lousy reviews. Mayweather won the fight by unanimous decision, and afterward Pacquiao revealed he fought with a shoulder injury.<\/p>\n

Both fighters are also technically retired, and Pacquiao is in the middle of a campaign for Senate in the Philippines that, if he wins, would make it difficult for him to fight again.<\/p>\n

But Pacquiao could be tempted by a chance to avenge his defeat. And Mayweather could be lured back into the ring not only by a big payday but a chance to break Rocky Marciano\u2019s 49-0 record and win fight No. 50 in his pro career.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously he\u2019s coming back,\u201d Arum said of Mayweather. \u201cAnd I can\u2019t see him making the kind of money he\u2019s talking about with anybody other than Manny.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both fighters have fought once since the big fight, with Mayweather beating Andre Berto last September and Pacquiao defeating Timothy Bradley last month. Both fights were pay-per-view busts, with sales in the range of 400,000, a tenth of what they sold in the ring together.<\/p>\n

Arum said the tepid box office performances were largely a result of a hangover from last May\u2019s fight. Many fans who spent a record $99.95 to buy the fight at home felt they got taken by a lackluster bout that didn\u2019t come anywhere near living up to its hype.<\/p>\n

Arum said it will be hard for either fighter to move forward without the other.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they fight anybody else there\u2019s going to be that hangover,\u201d he said. \u201cIf they fight each other, people will be attracted to the fight. It won\u2019t do what the last fight did, but it might do 50 percent of the last fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

That would be enough to make Mayweather his nine-figure purse. It would also be enough to give Pacquiao a huge payday, if not the $100 million or so he took from the Mayweather fight.<\/p>\n

And, as proven in the first fight between the two men that grossed some $600 million, anything can happen in boxing if the money is right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LAS VEGAS \u2014 They met a year ago this week in a fight that was the richest ever, even if it disappointed most of the millions who watched it. Now there are rumblings, however slight, that Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao might be persuaded to do it again. \u201cI would say there is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":12692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-12691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12691"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=12691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}