Many diehard boxing fans would likely scoff at the idea of Floyd “Money” Mayweather and Manny “PacMan” Pacquiao stepping back in the ring for a rematch but it is still the most lucrative fight to be made in boxing.
Financially it will do big numbers. It may not do the mega pay-per-view numbers it did the first time around of over 4 million buys but it will do enough to beat out any other fight offered up today.
Canelo Alvarez and Anthony Joshua are two of the biggest draws in the sport but they are contracted to DAZN a monthly paid subscription streaming service where you watch fights online with no pay-per-view costs. The only downside with DAZN is you have to be a subscriber so if you want to watch the huge Canelo or Anthony Joshua fight you must watch on that streaming service, you cannot order just the fight on PPV.
ESPN has their own streaming service called ESPN plus which offers PPV but the downside here is you have to be a subscriber to order the PPV so you are still paying a monthly subscriber fee and also a PPV fee for the big fights. DAZN at least shows you the big fights without the extra PPV charges
So with Canelo and Anthony Joshua tied up with DAZN you have Manny Pacquiao the 40-year-old legend still the biggest active PPV star in boxing.
Pacquiao is coming off a massive win over Keith Thurman and at 40 years of age he became the oldest welterweight champion in history. The win had the sports world talking about him again. He revived his career with that performance and people would be very interested in seeing him face Floyd Mayweather in a rematch.
The diehard fan and maybe some sour casuals who were ticked off by the first fight being boring probably won’t order the fight but Manny Pacquiao still has a large fanbase and Floyd Mayweather still has a lot of haters who want to see him lose.
If they do the fight on FOX PPV which is pretty much the home of the PBC (Premier Boxing Champions) I could see the build up and hype taking stride and the fight could easily do well over 2 million buys on PPV.
It won’t be hard to make since both Pacquiao and Mayweather are aligned with Al Haymon. The first time around they had promotional issues. Mayweather didn’t want to do business with Bob Arum who was promoting Pacquiao and Arum didn’t want to do business with Haymon who was handling Mayweather.
The fight finally got done five years too late and it ended up a dud. Later it was revealed that Pacquiao had a shoulder injury and the commission refused to give him a pain killer shot before the fight hindering his performance and that is why the fight was boring. You had Floyd being very defensive and cautious and a normally aggressive offensive slugger like was Pacquiao limited in his output from the pain in his shoulder.
I believe the rematch would be a lot different than the first. It will be more action packed since Mayweather has been inactive and willing to trade more as evidence in the Conor McGregor fight and Pacquiao no longer has the lingering shoulder injury and has been destroying younger opponents.
The idea of Mayweather-Pacquiao rematch might get a lot of hate at first but once they start showing countdown shows and hype it up the casual fans will cave in and buy it. It will be a financial success and everyone involved will win financially.
