Manny Pacquiao On Fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr.: ”It Could Happen Next Year”

Recent Twitter banters notwithstanding, it appears that the super fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr vs. Manny Pacquiao is indeed in the offing as the Filipino have admitted the possibility on Friday.

"It could happen next year,” Pacquiao declared to Manny Piñol in an article at philboxing.com. Pinol is an ex-governor of North Cotobato, a boxing aficionado who has close ties with Pacquiao and sports columnist for the Manila Times newspaper.

According to Piñol, who also hails from the South of the Philippines like Pacquiao, the Filipino pugilist told him that Showtime is putting the pressure on Mayweather Jr. to “take the fight against him” because of potential big payout it will bring the network to make up for lost investments on Mayweather, who signed a six-fight contract with Showtime in February of 2013. The deal is reportedly around $250 million.

Mayweather has fought Robert Guerrero, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Marcos Maidana, twice so far under the network. Except for the fight against Alvarez which broke pay-per-view records other PPV numbers have been underwhelming.

Showtime, a rival of HBO Sports which handles Pacquiao fights, recently lost Alvarez to HBO after the Mexican signed an undisclosed multi-year deal with HBO just this September.

Pacquiao cleared however that he is serious in his preparation for his next fight, a battle with unheralded and unknown American fighter in Chris Algieri on Nov. 22 in Macau.

After Mayweather Jr. (47-0-0, 26 KOs) defeated Marcos Maidana (35-5-0, 31 KOs) in a one-sided rematch, Mayweather’s camp as per boxing trainer and uncle Jeff Mayweather said that his nephew is possibly choosing between British Boxer Amir Khan and Pacquiao for a 2015 match-up.

Mayweather also just recently declared that he’s willing to talk to Pacquiao about the probable super fight if and when the Filipino beat Algieri in his next fight.

"But right now, I would like to focus on the Algieri fight,” said in the same article emphasising the fact that he won’t underestimate the undefeated and dangerous former kickboxing champion.

Algieri has a record of 20-0-0 win-loss-draw record with eight of the bouts not going to the distance. Pacquiao enters the bout with a 56-5-2 record with 38 knockouts.

The wildly-hyped Mayweather vs. Pacquiao super fight in 2015 will continue being talked about as both fighters are nearing the end of their respective careers. Recent updates like the Showtime-HBO talks, Jeff Mayweather comment, Floyd Mayweather Jr’s pronouncement and now, Manny Pacquiao’s confirmation will only add fuel to the fire.