Floyd Mayweather can?t stop giving mixed signals, attending Manny Pacquiao?s win vs. Jessie Vargas last Saturday and then telling reporters Wednesday that he?s still retired, saying ?I?m a promoter. I?m here to help these fighters get to the next level. That?s what it?s about.? But that hasn?t stopped rumors about a potential Mayweather-Pacquiao rematch from reverberating around the boxing universe for the past 10 days.
It sounds like Jim Lampley, boxing?s preeminent blow-by-blow announcer, is tired of it all. During Wednesday night?s episode of The Fight Game on HBO, Lampley ? who called the first Mayweather-Pacquiao match for the combined HBO/Showtime broadcast ? was adamant about not seeing a rematch.
Instead, he said, fans and the boxing brokers should be focused on a potential Gennady Golovkin vs. Canelo Alvarez matchup and not a fight that would solely be about greed.
Floyd Mayweather Jr., left, said he?s not coming back to fight. AFP PHOTO / JOHN GURZINKSI (Photo by JOHN GURZINSKI/AFP/Getty Images)
?The contrast could not be clearer with the new superfight which now waits on the horizon,? Lampley said on the broadcast, according to the show?s script. ?Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez are both at or near their competitive peaks. Neither has suffered a personal life error which blemishes the image. Both are aggressive boxer-punchers, the most entertaining kind of fighters to watch. We are being made to wait, but as yet, there is no expectation we will have to wait five years, or even close to it.
?There?s a decent chance Triple G-Canelo can take place in [2017]. So, it would be a shame, and another loss for boxing, if casual fans and the general public were distracted by a for-profit-only replay of a considerably less interesting fight. Lovers of boxing should keep their eyes on the prize, and avoid falling for the pitch that a surgically repaired shoulder and a decision win over Jessie Vargas are indications that Manny Pacquaio is ready now to beat Floyd Mayweather.?
Despite jostling with each other for bargaining positioning throughout 2016, the Golovkin and Alvarez camps have said a fight is supposed to occur next September. Who knows for sure whether that will actually happen, especially considering Alvarez moved down in weight to avoid fighting Golovkin at the 160-pound middleweight limit and considering Alvarez?s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, said he offered Golovkin an eight-figure purse to no avail.
But Lampley is right. A Golovkin-Alvarez super-fight would be infinitely more interesting than Mayweather-Pacquiao 2.
Yet, there are reasons a Mayweather-Pacquiao rematch would make sense. Even though a second fight between the two wouldn?t generate nearly as much money as the first one did ? it set a boxing PPV record of 4.6 million buys and generated the first $600 million night in sports history ? it would still make plenty of money, probably even more than Golovkin-Alvarez. Plus, after watching Pacquiao look good, but not spectacular, in beating Vargas, Mayweather has to know he?d be the big favorite to win and extend his legacy as the best fighter of his era. There?s also the news Mayweather shared Wednesday that he sparred with junior welterweight Thomas Dulorme for a few rounds several weeks ago.
The threat of a rematch seemed to offend Lampley for a number of reasons.
?It was fitting that Manny Pacquaio?s latest ring appearance took place three days before the end of the most gut-wrenching presidential campaign in our society?s history, and that his now indelible opposite number Floyd Mayweather came to watch from ringside and trade smiles and hand signals with his business partner,? Lampley said. ?If both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump struggled to escape the unfavorable impressions that dogged them both, Mayweather and Pacquaio face the same obstacle. Mayweather?s history with regard to women will never be erased, nor will Pacquaio?s disgraceful homophobic outburst or his public support of his country?s apparently bloodthirsty new chief executive.
?Still, they shared in the biggest economic event in the history of the sport, so it is inevitable that a cynical expectation they will do it again now ensues. Regardless of the one-sidedness and non-existent entertainment value of the first meeting, regardless of the age and diminishing punching power of the combatants.?
Luckily for Lampley, Mayweather said he has no interest.
?I had my fun,? Mayweather said Wednesday. ?I went out and did what I had to do. Everyone is saying, ?Go for [win] No. 50. Go for a record.? Like I said before, if it was in God?s plan, it would have happened. My last fight was 49 and I?m happy with how my career went.?
