Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather have been reunited in Japan. The former foes were pictured side by side at the Super Rizin weigh ins and press conference this afternoon.
Pacquiao appears to be picking up the local lingo. He share a photo of him and Mayweather along with a caption that reads ‘Kon’nichiwa from Japan’:
Kon'nichiwa from Japan 👋🏽👊🏽🤔 pic.twitter.com/5EaBdZDdMi
— Manny Pacquiao (@MannyPacquiao) September 24, 2022
Pacquiao and Mayweather famously fought in 2015. The fight supposedly generated $600 million USD making it the most lucrative combat sport event of all time.
The pay per view (PPV) was purchased by an incredible 4.6 million people. That set a record which the 2017 fight between Mayweather and Conor McGregor narrowly failed to surpass.
These days both Pacquiao and Mayweather are officially retired. But both men have shown a willingness to compete in exhibition fights which typically involved completely outmatched opponents.
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Fat pension
Most people claim a pension when they retire. But Mayweather has made millions by facing the likes of Logan Paul and Tenshin Nasukawa in exhibition fights.
Tomorrow morning (local time) he will be taking on Mikuru Asakura and the boxer claims to be making ‘upwards of $15-20mn’ for this three round fight. His opponent is a mixed martial artist who has never previously competed in boxing.
It is unclear exactly why Pacquiao was in attendance at the press conference and weigh ins. The Filipino has been ringside for Rizin events before and will presumably be there tomorrow to watch Mayweather face off with Asakura.
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Two dates
Pacquiao appears to be back in training and currently has two dates booked. On December 11th he will be taking on Korean YouTuber DK Yoo in Seoul.
This week it was announced that Pacquiao would be facing an actual boxer in an exhibition bout in February. The Filipino has signed up to take on former sparring partner Jaber Zayani in Saudi Arabia.
The prospect of Mayweather and Pacquiao rematching appears to be moving closer to a reality. But if Rizin wants to put together another fight between the two boxing legends matchmakes must be hoping people don’t remember the first.
Mayweather cruised to a decision win with Pacquiao causing him no problems whatsoever during 12 rounds of very limited action. Afterwards the Filipino cited a shoulder injury when asked to explain his sub par performance.
But both men still have a huge fan following. All the talk is of Mayweather rematching McGregor in 2022 but Pacquiao might just have skipped ahead of the Irishman in that queue.
