mayweather

Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao made boxing history in 2015. More than a decade later, the two legends are hoping to do it again.

The aging greats will have their rematch Sept. 19 live on Netflix in the first boxing match held at the Las Vegas Sphere.

Mayweather defeated Pacquiao by unanimous decision on May 2, 2015 in the “Fight of the Century” at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. That fight generated 4.6 million pay-per-view buys and a live gate of $72 million, both of which are records.

It was a long-awaited matchup between two of the biggest names in the boxing world that ultimately earned Mayweather the World Boxing Council, World Boxing Assn. and World Boxing Organization welterweight titles.

“I already fought and beat Manny once,” Mayweather said in a statement released by Netflix. “This time will be the same result.”

The backdrop to this bout is a bit different. Mayweather (50-0, 27 KOs) will be 49 on Tuesday. He has retired and unretired multiple times but has not fought in a bout that counts since his 10-round technical knockout of UFC star Conor McGregor in 2017.

Although he still has an exhibition against Mike Tyson coming up this spring, Mayweather announced last week he is resuming his professional career.

Pacquiao, 47, is 62-9-2 (39 KOs) and fought for a belt last July, losing by majority draw to then-WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios in an attempt to break his own record for oldest welterweight champion. Pacquiao was 40 when he defeated Keith Thurman for the title in 2019.

Pacquiao recently announced a a 10-round welterweight exhibition against former junior welterweight world champion Ruslan Provodnikov on April 18 at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas.

“Floyd and I gave the world what remains the biggest fight in boxing history,” Pacquiao said in a statement by Netflix. “The fans have waited long enough — they deserve this rematch, and it will be even bigger now that it will be streamed live globally on Netflix. I want Floyd to live with the one loss on his professional record and always remember who gave it to him.”

Boxing greats Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather have agreed a professional rematch in September.

Pacquiao, 47, and Mayweather, 48, will fight at Sphere in Las Vegas on Saturday, 19 September, with the bout live on Netflix.

Former world champion Mayweather announced he would come out of retirement for a fourth time last week.

It will be the American’s first professional fight since beating mixed martial arts fight Conor McGregor with a 10th-round technical knockout in 2017.

Eight-weight world champion Pacquiao retired from the sport to focus on his political career in 2021 but returned to the ring last July to fight WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios, who retained his title after a draw.

Mayweather and Pacquiao first met in 2015, in what was billed as the ‘Fight of the Century’.

It was Mayweather who emerged victorious, beating Pacquiao via a wide unanimous decision in Las Vegas.

Pacquiao said: “Floyd and I gave the world what remains the biggest fight in boxing history.

“The fans have waited long enough. They deserve this rematch.

“I want Floyd to live with the one loss on his professional record and always remember who gave it to him.”

Mayweather said: “I already fought and beat Manny once. This time will be the same result.”

Floyd Mayweather Jr., one of history’s most successful professional boxers, is suing Showtime and a former executive at the company for $340 million, accusing them of depriving him of a “significant portion of his career earnings.”

The 48-year-old retired athlete alleges in the complaint that Showtime “through a complex web of hidden accounts, unauthorized transactions, and deliberate concealment of financial records,” wrongly paid some of his earnings to his former manager, Al Haymon.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, is aimed at the Paramount-owned network and its former president of Showtime Sports, Stephen Espinoza. The complaint alleges that Mayweather’s inquiries about his pay were met with conflicting responses from Showtime, including that “critical financial records for Mayweather’s biggest fights were ‘lost’ or inaccessible.”

Haymon is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

A spokesperson for Paramount wrote in a statement to The Times that “these baseless claims lack legal or factual merit. We strongly reject them and will respond accordingly through the court process.”

A spokesperson for Haymon Boxing declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Over Mayweather’s 21-year career, the boxer has reportedly earned $1.2 billion. He first met his former manager, Haymon, in 2004. The boxer soon entered a verbal agreement with Haymon, allowing him to be Mayweather’s manager for a 10% fee. According to the suit, Mayweather considered Haymon to be a “father figure and relied on him to manage virtually all aspects of his finances and contracts.” Haymon worked in this role for about 20 years, and over time, the suit alleges, he became the “mastermind of the financial scheme,” engaging in “financial manipulation and self-dealing behind Mayweather’s back.”

In 2013, Mayweather exited a long-term contract with HBO to ink a new exclusive multi-fight deal with Showtime. The complaint states that Haymon’s “scheme” consisted of “diverting portions” of Mayweather’s earnings “under false pretenses that Haymon then kept or controlled,” putting fight revenues into “secret accounts that Mayweather did not know about or have access to,” paying himself large sums of money without Mayweather‘s knowledge and allegedly altering documents to cover up these actions.

Mayweather’s new team reached out to Showtime in 2024 for documentation of fight revenues and expenses. According to the lawsuit, his team was told the documents were “‘lost in a flood’ or stored off-site and not readily accessible.”

Mayweather also alleges Showtime still owes him $20 million from his 2015 fight against Andre Berto. The payout was originally meant to come from the proceeds of the Manny Pacquiao fight that year.

The lawsuit contends that by wiring Mayweather’s earnings to accounts inaccessible tothe boxer and saying that key documents are missing, both “Showtime and Espinoza enabled Haymon’s scheme and stymied Mayweather’s efforts to uncover the truth.”