It seems Floyd Mayweather's claim he wants to fight Manny Pacquiao again later this year wasn't the sort of empty bluster you see from supposedly retired pugilists. TMZ Sports caught up with the president of programming for Showtime Sports, Joseph Espinoza, and he clarified the seriousness of the rematch.
"Having spoken to Floyd, I know he's deadly serious about it," he said. "He's very, very serious about wanting the fight." Manny appears in, especially considering their first PPV special set a record at the box office.
The timing is all that's left to figure out, it seems. Mayweather intimated the fight should go down before the new year, but Espinoza says differently.
"2019 sounds perfect. After I get a little bit of sleep after this event, we'll go at Mayweather/Pacquiao 2, I think."
The two fighters have had a weird trajectory after finally squaring off in the spring of 2015, but we're not sure the rematch will do the numbers Showtime envisions.
There's still no word on what God is telling Manny about a rematch, but we know what Nike thinks about representing the Filipino fighter who thinks gay people should be put to death. And we're sure fight fans are stoked to root for either the 39-year-old homophobe or the 41-year-old who beats up women.
