As it stands, the bout is scheduled for Saturday, September 19 and is expected to stream globally on Netflix. The event was officially announced through a February 23 Netflix press release. Early promotional material billed the contest as the “first ever professional boxing match to take place at Sphere in Las Vegas.”
Not so fast says Floyd Mayweather himself.
Speaking in a recent interview with Vegas Sports Today, the undefeated hall of famer made it clear that fans expecting a continuation of their 2015 showdown may need to adjust expectations.
“This is not actually a fight. It’s an exhibition.”
Those comments directly contradict how the bout is currently being represented to the boxing public. The fight is being listed on BoxRec as a professional contest. Sources tell Boxing Social, that the listing was entered by a site administrator without official confirmation or input from the event’s organizers.
Mayweather himself has pushed back on the idea that this will be a legitimate professional rematch.
“We’re going to do it again and hopefully entertain the people.”
Even the venue, which many believed to be locked in, appears to still be up in the air. While the Sphere in Las Vegas has been heavily discussed as the likely host, Mayweather indicated that nothing has been finalized.
“As of right now, we don’t know exactly where the fight is going to be at. We don’t know the location of the fight. The Sphere is one of the locations that they talked about, so we don’t know if it’s 100% going to be there.”
Despite the ambiguity, interest in the bout remains sky high, largely due to the legacy of their first encounter. When Mayweather and Pacquiao finally met in May 2015, the event became a cultural and financial juggernaut. While the fight itself drew criticism for failing to live up to the hype inside the ring, it shattered records at every level, becoming the highest grossing fight in boxing history and rewriting the benchmarks for pay per view buys and live gate revenue.
On that night, Mayweather delivered a tactical performance to earn a unanimous decision victory. He retained his WBA and WBC welterweight titles while also claiming Pacquiao’s WBO belt.