You?d be very na?ve to think that there aren?t a lot of people on both Pacquiao?s and Mayweather?s side trying very hard to get the two boxing cash cows back in the ring again. Despite the poor critical reception of their May 2 bout and in the face of a customer backlash that resulted in several lawsuits being filed, the long-awaited event produced.
The long-awaited mega-fight easily destroyed all previous revenue records, generating over $500 million in overall revenue with 4.4 million PPV buys and the most lucrative live gate tally of all-time. It was a Super Bowl-sized event that saw Mayweather, who won a unanimous decision, reportedly walk away with over $200 million and Pacquiao earn somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 million.
Even if a rematch produced one-third the level of fan interest, it would still be among the top three PPV events in sports history and infinitely more lucrative than any fight either boxer currently has available to them.
At the moment, though, Mayweather?s people are holding firm on their declaration that the five-division world champ is retired. Meanwhile, Team Pacquiao is insisting that their fighter will have one final fight before moving into politics full-time and that the leading candidates for the opponent slot on April 9 are Terence Crawford, Timothy Bradley, and Amir Khan.
But Pacquiao, himself, seems to believe something else all together.
The eight-division former world champ has now twice gone on record as saying that talks are ongoing when it comes to a Mayweather rematch and that means that Manny is either flat-out lying or that maybe, possibly, something IS happening behind the scenes. Maybe it was in the plans all along. Or, maybe, both sides are more receptive to the idea than they were immediately after the first bout.
The plot to sell the rematch won?t need much of a push since both fighters? respective fan bases are still very much at war with one another and would surely escalate the nastiness as more and more rumors swirl. Just targeting the two respective fan bases and counting on a smattering of outside casual fan interest would be enough to turn the rematch into a blockbuster.
Of course, though, some changes would have to be made.
The PPV price would have to be dropped to the industry standard $50-$60 range, down from the $100 demanded for the first fight.
Manny would have to prove himself to be at 100% health and fully recovered from the shoulder injury that at least partially tainted the final result of his first crack at Mayweather.
Team Pacquiao would have to insist on holding the Nevada State Athletic Commission?s feet to the fire in terms of everything from fair and balanced drug testing to how much Team Mayweather can be allowed to dictate the terms of the bout. Without the insistence on a level playing field across the board, fans will hesitate in purchasing another bout that may generate some sort of controversy.
Even with an almost universally-panned first chapter, the second chapter of the Mayweather-Pacquiao saga is just too lucrative to leave on the table. More money is to be had from this rivalry and, as is usually the case in boxing, where there is money to be made, things have a funny way of working themselves out. There?s still a lot of time between now and when things have to be worked out for a May 7 Floyd-Manny rematch, so keep watching the headlines and the rumors to see if they are being carefully floated out for public consumption to help pre-sell the mega-fight, part two.
