SHOW ME THE MONEY! Tokyo encounter could lead to 2nd ring showdown
PACQUIAO-MAYWEATHER 2
In a brief chance encounter with Floyd Mayweather in Tokyo Saturday night, Manny Pacquiao said there was one thing the brash American fighter kept on saying that convinced him a rematch is in the offing.
In a video call with the Bulletin while he was having dinner with wife Jinkee and select members of his team, the 39-year-old Filipino star bared Mayweather had repeatedly told him: “I want to take that belt, I want to take that belt.”
Pacquiao holds the World Boxing Association welterweight title belt which he took away from Lucas Matthysse of Argentina last July in Malaysia.
Though contracts have yet to be drawn up, Mayweather came out on social media minutes after their accidental meeting during a concert, declaring he and Pacquiao are destined to fight each other again.
Mayweather said he is coming out of retirement in December, a date Pacquiao had already booked.
“Everything has a purpose,” Pacquiao said before midnight Saturday, brushing off suggestions the fight could happen as early as December.
Pacquiao had dropped a decision to Mayweather when they rumbled in May 2015 in Las Vegas.
Pacquiao claimed though that he fought with an injured right shoulder, an assertion Mayweather took as an excuse for Pacquiao’s failure to figure him out.
Pacquiao is in Japan for an endorsement gig and those who joined him there aside from Jinkee are two-time world champ Gerry Peñalosa, staffers Joe Ramos and Roger Fernandez.
Mayweather, 41, hasn’t fought since overwhelming MMA star Conor McGregor in August last year but appears pumped to make a comeback.
“We are going to take the belt,” said Mayweather in a video provided by US boxing man Sean Gibbons who was also in Tokyo. “We are gonna get the payday and I don’t want no shoulder excuses.”
Gibbons is as thrilled as Pacquiao and Mayweather and is actually given authority to become a part of the negotiations to put the fight in place for Dec. 1 or 8 in Las Vegas.
“Floyd was on the phone with (adviser) Al Haymon and he told him to do this fight,” said the Las Vegas-based Gibbons, who also represents Jerwin Ancajas and Donnie Nietes.
In fact, Gibbons was set to join Pacquiao on the flight back to Manila last night from Tokyo and part of his stay in the Philippines will be to grease the path towards completion of the deal.
Holder of a 50-0 record, Mayweather is a five-division world champion and his clash with Pacquiao over three years ago, earned over 4.5 million PPV buys.