Three weeks after the Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao "Fight of the Century," and with both camps still exchanging punches outside of the ring, the rumor mill is ripe with speculations that the fighters will meet again in April next year for a rematch.
A report by Fightsaga.com said that the ridiculous amount of money earned by both fighters and with a small minority questioning the judges' unanimous decision to declare Money Man the victor in their May 2 fight, the possibility of a Mayweather vs Pacquiao 2 is not farfetched despite a strong public dissatisfaction.
Mayweather vs Pacquiao was undoubtedly the richest in history and generated between 4.4 to five million pay-per-view buys that earned Mayweather more than $200 million. Manny Pacquiao was reported to have earned somewhere in the vicinity of $150 million in 36-minutes of fighting (or chasing Mayweather depending on who you asked).
Even Floyd's uncle Roger, who also acted as his co-trainer, believed that a rematch with Pacquio should push through to put to rest any doubt on who is the best pound-for-pound fighter amongst the two.
"Floyd's legacy is going to be good but he needs to close that legacy with Pacquiao. He needs to go back and him and Pacquiao need to do it again. That's what I think. To close the door in terms of victory, that's what he needs to do," Roger Mayweather told ontheropesboxing.com.
But Top Rank promoter quickly doused cold water into rumors of a rematch and said there was "no legitimacy to the hearsay."
Even the two fighters seem not interested in a rematch.
In an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Pacquiao said he wants to focus on his other commitments. Pacquiao is a legislator being a congressman in his home province in Saranggani province, south of the capital Manila. Pacquiao is also playing coach of the Kia Carnival team participating in the Philippine Basketball Association.
He said, "Right now, my focus is to fully recover from my right shoulder injury and on my job as a lawmaker.
Pacquiao also appeared to have accepted that he lost the fight and said he respected the judges decision. However, he said he was moved to tears after watching a replay of the fight back in his hotel room.
"When I went back to my hotel, I reviewed the fight and I saw the people's reactions; that's when I cried because of the support of the people before and after my fight, "I was disappointed because I failed to give you joy," as he apologized to the boxing fans.
More importantly, the eight-time division champion Pacquiao said the Fight of the Century allowed him to know the real personality of Mayweather. "He's an astute fighter who doesn't have the so-called sense of fair play," Pacquiao said.
Floyd, the 'Money Man' is also not interested in a rematch after he backtracked from his earlier commitment of a return bout with Pacquiao.
He even called Pacquiao a "sore loser" and "coward" after the fight.
However, FightSaga.com said that a Mayweather vs Pacquiao 2 will only happen if both fighters are willing to take a much smaller purse and if the public will support it.
Boxing manager/trainer James Gogue told FightSaga, "This fight won't happen if the public doesn't support it. The public was so pissed off... Not only in the fight but everything leading up to it."
He continued, "The media was treated like crap... The fans were treated like crap. And the greed.... [Floyd] and Al Haymon charging $10 for the weigh-in and all that stuff. I can't see how they are going to support a Mayweather vs Pacquiao rematch. I can see a lot of people boycotting the fight."
