NOT TOO FAST
The video that you all have been seeing is false because I’ve been to Saudi Arabia a long time ago
Fans have to wait a little longer before seeing Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao coming to blows anew.
Shortly after a video showing Mayweather confirming a potential fight with Pacquiao in Saudi Arabia surfaced on social media, the outspoken American came up with a denial, saying that no such plan is in the pipeline.
In the video, Mayweather is shown taking a trip to Middle East to seek an audience with interested parties who are willing to roll the dice in another megabuck fight with the Filipino ring supremo.
Mayweather said the video is an old footage taken nine months ago and was made to hype his visit in Saudi Arabia earlier this year.
“The video that you all have been seeing is false because I’ve been to Saudi Arabia a long time ago,” Mayweather told Ben Thompson of fighthype.com, a United States-based website that is said to have close ties with the retired boxing superstar.
“I talked to them about me fighting there, just different fights. But they wanted me to specifically say Manny Pacquiao.”
“And actually, we didn’t talk about boxing. We talked about different events, us bringing different events there.”
The first time Mayweather and Pacquiao fought was in 2015 in a battle billed as the “Fight of the Century.”
It was a massive success as it generated somewhere between $300 million to $400 million and broke the pay-per-view records in the United States with 4.6 million buys and $410 million in revenue, surpassing the previous $150 million revenue set by Mayweather and Saul Alvarez.
With that, Pacquiao’s camp has been calling for a rematch, but Mayweather showed very little interest in a bid to protect his legacy that is laced with an impressive 50-0 record.
Instead, Mayweather hit Pacquiao for losing in their megabuck duel, especially his right shoulder injury, which he claimed was hurt in training.
“The first time, you know, he can raise his hand after the fight is over. Then, all of a sudden, his shoulder is messed up. Excuse after excuse, you know what I’m saying,” Mayweather said.
“A real champion, you know, he takes his wins like a man and he takes his losses like a man.”
But Pacquiao dismissed Mayweather’s taunts and even showed that he could still perform at a higher level when he dominated a younger, bigger fighter in Keith Thurman last July.
The fighting senator remains interested in clashing with Mayweather with MP Promotions president Sean Gibbons including the American in their list of possible opponents in his next fight next year.
Gibbons, however, said they are not aware of Mayweather’s trip to Saudi Arabia to talk to potential investors.
“Senator is not aware of anything,” Gibbons said.
Still, Mayweather insisted that his saga with the Filipino ring icon is already over.
“As far as me and Manny Pacquiao, as of right now, there will never be a rematch,” he said.
A real champion, you know, he takes his wins like a man and he takes his losses like a man.