Floyd Mayweather Jr. announced Wednesday that he will fight on May 5th and he wants to face Manny Pacquiao. Floyd’s adviser told Dan Rafael that Mayweather’s team is “looking to make the biggest fight possible and everyone knows what that fight is, the little fella.”
It’s clear that means they want Manny Pacquiao, who has a November 12th fight against Juan Manuel Marquez. During an interview on 106 & Park Wednesday, Floyd mentioned Manny by name.
“We’re looking for Pacquiao,” Mayweather said. “We want Pacquiao to take the test. We just want to give the fans and the people around the world what they want to see.”
Floyd will be 35 in May while Manny will be 33. Neither fighter has much time left, so it wouldn’t be unreasonable to think that the winner will retire. You can expect each fighter to make at minimum $50 million for the bout. They will likely pull in much more.
Now the next step is making sure Manny beats Juan Manuel Marquez. As long as that happens, the sides should agree to a 50-50 split, and full drug testing with no cutoff date. Then, the long-anticipated fight may finally happen.
Here is a full history of the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. negotiations.
