Anyone who remembers how long it took to make the first fight is having an unfortunate flashback. The first battle took place too late. This topic has been the subject of numerous articles and podcast segments over the past fifteen years. About how the bolt was allowed to marinate so long that by May 2015 the fight was mushy and the flavor was all wrong. By the time the two men entered the ring, they were past their physical primes, and the fight didn’t live up to the massive build-up.
In addition to the fight itself not living up to the hype, the main event was delayed by 45 minutes due to issues with the global pay-per-view feed. Many claimed that Mayweather negotiated the fight terms in his favor, making it unfair. Pacquiao claimed he had a shoulder injury when they fought. The dream fight was anything but a dream.
So why are 49-year-old Mayweather and 47-year-old Pacquiao mixing it up again more than a decade later? Even in boxing, where every retirement is met with some skepticism, it seems absurd. Will there be a seasoned Zuffa Legends belt up for grabs?
Former heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, who is starting a comeback of his own, was critical of Mayweather and Pacquiao facing off again. “These guys are almost 50 years old. Is it for the right reasons? Probably not. What I’m hearing is it’s all financial reasons. People can pretend they’re rich. When you’re that rich and that secure, you don’t want to fight at 50. That’s a fact.”
Assuming that happens, Mayweather-Pacquiao II will be streamed worldwide on Netflix from The Sphere in Las Vegas. Millions of people will likely watch the September rematch. Some will be excited to see these two legends fight again, while others will stumble upon it after not being able to decide which crime drama to watch that night. It appears to be a financial success for Netflix, as well as for Mayweather and Pacquiao. But the question most boxing fans ask is why. As in, why is this fight happening again in 2026?
This is an interesting question, and one that is impossible to answer without the use of truth serum. Pacquiao initially wanted a second fight, but that was ten years ago. Why is this happening now? How did we get to the point where both men agreed to a rematch?
To get to the heart of the matter, it would be instructive to see what these two men have been up to since they first fought over 4,000 days ago.
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Pacquiao has had eight fights since the first Mayweather bout, going 5-2-1 over that span. One of the two losses was a controversial decision loss to Australian Jeff Horn in Brisbane, Australia. The other loss was in August 2021 to Yordenis Ugas, who came on as a late injury replacement for Errol Spence. In his only subsequent fight since the loss to Ugas, Pacquiao earned a draw against Mario Barrios in July 2025. That Pacquiao was able to score a draw against a welterweight champion in his first fight in four years speaks to Pacquiao’s immense talent.
Pacquiao has also kept himself busy outside the ring, serving two three-year terms in the Philippine House of Representatives and a six-year Senate term from 2016 to 2022. During his Senatorial campaign, Pacquiao made controversial comments about people in same-sex marriage for which he later apologized.
After his loss to Ugas, Pacquiao announced his retirement from boxing so he could focus on his candidacy for President of the Philippines. Pacquiao finished third in the 2022 Philippine presidential election with just under seven percent of the vote. His six-year Senate term ended a few months later in June 2022. In 2025, Pacquiao attempted a political comeback and ran again for the Philippine Senate. He was unsuccessful. Just about ten weeks later, Pacquiao fought to a draw with Mario Barrios.
Has Pacquiao decided to put on his gloves again because he has reached the end of his political road? Even though he fought eight more times after facing Mayweather, this has to be the fight Manny has wanted since May 2015. Eight fights in eleven years isn’t a ton, but Pacquiao has been the picture of activity compared to Mayweather.
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This latest return marks the third time Floyd Mayweather has returned to boxing. Floyd only retired after defeating the late Ricky Hatton in December 2007.
After his first victory over Manny Pacquiao in May 2015, Mayweather then defeated
Andre Berto in September and sailed off into the sunset again with 49-0. Sailing off into the sunset gives you time to think. Mayweather seemed to be thinking about how 50 is more of a round number than 49. Reports of Mayweather’s trademark “TMT 50” and “TBE 50” made the rounds, and it seemed like it was only a matter of time before Mayweather made another comeback. (For the uninitiated, those acronyms stand for The Money Team and The Best Ever).
The comeback became official in 2017 when Mayweather announced he was coming out of retirement and took on UFC star Conor McGregor in a boxing match. People were interested even though McGregor was a mixed martial artist by trade. McGregor and Mayweather hit the press tour, with viral moments galore.
Somehow, it was approved as a professional boxing match, and in August 2017, the two men faced each other. Each made hundreds of millions of dollars. Mayweather carried McGregor through the majority of the fight, until Mayweather mercifully ended proceedings in the 10th round. After his lucrative 50th career victory, Floyd Mayweather once again declared his retirement from boxing.
In November 2018, Mayweather paid the Securities and Exchange Commission a $750,000 settlement for failing to disclose payments he accepted from issuers of initial coin offerings.
To say Mayweather was inactive after his third, and longest, retirement would not be entirely accurate. In the years following his last professional fight, he participated in and received compensation for eight exhibition fights.
On the last day of 2018, he fought Japanese kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa. After a few years, Mayweather really picked up his exhibition pace. On May 6, 2021, Mayweather fought social media personality Logan Paul in Miami. In May 2022, Mayweather had an eight-round exhibition against former sparring partner Don Moore. Four months later, Japanese mixed martial artist Mikuru Asakara was Mayweather’s next opponent. In his third and final exhibition bout of 2022, Mayweather took on Deji in November. Deji is a social media influencer whose claim to fame is that his elder brother KSI is a more prominent social media influencer. In February 2023, Mayweather fought former Bellator MMA fighter/TV personality Aaron Chalmers.
Mayweather took on John Gotti III, a former professional MMA/boxer, twice in June 2023 and August 2024. If that name sounds familiar, yes, he is a descendant of mafiosos John Gotti and John A. Gotti. We’ve entered the third persona of Floyd Mayweather, from Pretty Boy Floyd and Money Mayweather to Mercenary Mayweather.
Mayweather has two more exhibition bouts planned before facing Pacquiao again. At the end of April, Mayweather and Mike Tyson will fight in the Congo. Then, in June, he takes on retired kickboxer Mike Zambidis in Greece.
Will these exhibition bouts adequately prepare Mayweather for a real fight against a real boxer?
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Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao are two of the best boxers in modern history. As Tiger Woods can attest, adjusting to retirement can be difficult when elite athletes step away from their sport. After building an entire existence and identity around something, what do you do when it starts to decline? You can continue as an age-reduced version of yourself, or start a political career like Pacquiao. Or like Mayweather, you can take lower-stakes exhibition fights and become a modern-day version of a circus act. Both paths are profitable and can be rewarding in different ways.
But it’s just not the same. A political campaign or an exhibition fight might approach the feeling of competing in a prizefight, but in the end the two men were just chasing ghosts. On September 19, Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao will fight each other around the ring. We can only hope it’s 2026.
