Are Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao building toward a rematch?

Manny Pacquiao proved he is still capable of holding his own in the ring when he defeated Keith Thurman over the weekend, and that has resulted in a lot of talk about a potential rematch between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. With the way the two fighters have been going back and forth on social media, it’s fair to wonder if they are open to it.

In a lengthy post on Instagram Tuesday, Mayweather criticized people for bringing up his name every time something happens with Pacquiao. He said Pacquiao’s “entire legacy and career has been built off its association with my name” and that it is time for people to stop using his name as “clickbait” for Pac-Man.

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I find it real ironic how every time Pacquiao's name is brought up in the media, my name is always attached to it. This man's entire legacy and career has been built off its association with my name and it's about time you all stop using my brand for clout chasing and clickbait and let that man's name hold weight of its own. For years, all you heard was that " Floyd is afraid of Manny Pacquiao". But what's funny is, when we finally fought, I won so easily that everyone had to eat their words! All of the so called boxing experts, critics and jealous American "fan base" either went mute and ran for cover or made every excuse in the world as to why I should give Manny Pacquiao a rematch. My take on all this bullshit is that y’all are just upset that I broke Rocky Marciano's record and hate the fact that a Black, high school dropout outsmarted you all by beating all odds and retiring undefeated while maintaining all my faculties simply by making smart choices and even smarter investments. Ultimately, I will always have the last laugh!

A post shared by Floyd Mayweather (@floydmayweather) on Jul 23, 2019 at 5:23pm PDT

Not surprisingly, Pacquiao disagrees. He fired back at Mayweather on social media, pointing out that Floyd attended his fight against Thurman and essentially saying he should give him a rematch if he’s so desperate to be relevant again.

.@FloydMayweather You come to my fight and then use my name in a post but I’m the one that is trying to stay relevant? if you want to be relevant again… #MayPac2

— Manny Pacquiao (@MannyPacquiao) July 24, 2019

Mayweather had a response for that, of course. He took to Instagram again and said he only attended the fight because Pacquiao is his “employee” and he had to supervise. He also mocked Pac-Man for making the same amount of money against Thurman that Mayweather made recently for a meaningless exhibition fight.

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SWIPE LEFT Let's stick to the facts! Bob Arum is no longer your promoter, so when it comes to @mayweatherpromotions & PBC events I’m the HNIC! Bottom line, I make more money than you; I beat you, then I signed you! I was only at your fight supervising you, my employee, as any real BOSS would do. You made $10Million for 12 rounds, when I just made $9M in under 3 minutes playing around in an exhibition with a pizza delivery guy! I beat you mentally, physically and financially! Remember, you fight cause you have to, I fight when I want to! #TMT #TBE #mayweatherpromotions @greg_tmt

A post shared by Floyd Mayweather (@floydmayweather) on Jul 23, 2019 at 10:06pm PDT

Whether you like Mayweather or not, there’s no debating he is an excellent promoter. Most of what he does is calculated, so it’s certainly possible he could be trying to gauge how much interest there is in a potential Mayweather-Pacquiao rematch. There have been strong hints for quite some time that a rematch could be coming, and there’s no question is would result in an astronomical payday for both fighters. That is something that might be tough for Floyd to turn down.