Since suffering a massive defeat in 2015, WBA welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao has been campaigning for a rematch against undefeated boxing champion Floyd Mayweather, Jr. Despite being elected as a Philippine senator in 2016, the former eight-division world champion decided to resume his boxing career with the hope that he could face Mayweather again in the ring.
Floyd Mayweather, Jr. remains an active boxer, but instead of fighting opponents on his level, he decided to face the likes of Conor McGregor, and most recently, Tenshin Nasukawa. McGregor managed to give Mayweather a good fight, but Nasukawa was clearly not a match. In their fight at Rizin 14 , Mayweather, Jr. knocked down Nasukawa three times before his corner decided to throw the towel.
Floyd Mayweather, Jr. has earned plenty of criticism for his decision to fight the young Japanese kickboxer, but legendary boxing coach Freddie Roach strongly believes that “Money” is planning for something bigger after his recent match. Roach said in an interview with Keith Idec of Boxing Scene that Mayweather, Jr. could be planning to fight the winner of the upcoming bout between Manny Pacquiao and Adrien Broner.
“I feel a hundred percent that is why he did this,” Roach said. “He wants to be on TV so badly. He misses it. He’s actually a normal person and a nice guy when you’re one-on-one, without a camera on him. But you give him a camera, he’s not the nicest guy in the world.”
Cris Cyborg meets team Manny Pacquiao to discuss Nunes Rematch https://t.co/VlhlWs2GvK
— Terez Owens (@TerezOwens) January 5, 2019
Manny Pacquiao is set to defend the WBA welterweight title against Adrien Broner at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, on January 19. Coach Freddie Roach believes that whoever wins the fight will immediately call out Floyd Mayweather, Jr. A Mayweather-Broner bout isn’t a bad idea at all, but as of now, most boxing fans in the world would surely prefer a rematch between Pacquiao and Mayweather.
However, to convince Floyd Mayweather, Jr. to fight him for the second time, Roach said that Manny Pacquiao should have an impressive performance in his match against Adrien Broner.
“The thing is, Manny needs to be impressive in this fight. I feel he’s right there. I watched tapes of his last fight and I watched it live on TV. He fought a very, very good fight – one of the best fights he’s fought in a long time.”
Manny Pacquiao definitely knows what he needs to do to get Mayweather’s attention. Pacquiao revealed that he plans to end his fight with Adrien Broner with a knockout.