No one needs Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao 2 except the boxers themselves

A Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao rematch is something no one is asking for but we’ll probably get anyway, and the only people to gain from it will be the boxers themselves.

This past weekend, a thrilling rematch between Canelo Alvarez and Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin lived up to all the hype, producing a second close, tense battle that was fascinating because both boxers approached the fight in ways they normally wouldn’t. Never one to cede the spotlight to anyone, Floyd Mayweather chose that same weekend to announce his intention to seek a rematch with an even bigger name, Manny Pacquiao.

The first Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, which took place in May 2015, was one of those cases where the consensus opinion also turns out to be correct. In that case, the most commonly held view was that the fight was taking place too late in both fighters’ careers to be as good as it could be, but especially for Pacquiao, who despite being two years younger than Mayweather had been through many more tough rounds and fights.

Because it involved the two biggest names in boxing in the 21st century, the bout smashed pay-per-view records and made both men obscene amounts of money. Yet the fight itself, while no farce and with scores that would lead one to believe it was relatively close, was almost entirely devoid of drama. Neither man was ever seriously hurt, and Pacquiao never looked like he could do anything to win.

It’s something of an indictment to the sport that there’s no reason for them not to run it back three and a half years later. Mayweather is a generational talent as a boxer, but he’s also a genius of a businessman, and he’s learned since 2015 that he can make a boatload of money facing someone with even less of a chance of beating him when he carried UFC superstar Conor McGregor to a ridiculous payday last year.

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Depending on which reports you believe, Pac-Man might actually need the income he’d receive from a rematch despite making plenty of it over the course of his career. He’s no longer under the Top Rank banner, so the promotional hurdles to setting up a second fight will be much, much easier to clear.

The ways Mayweather-Pacquiao 2 would be sold are so easy to see through that they’re practically transparent. Manny had a shoulder injury the first time, or so he claimed, and he looked good while earning his first knockout in years this summer. Floyd is even older now, on the wrong side of 40, so maybe he’d finally slow down enough to be vulnerable and go down to defeat for the first time in his career.

Falling for any of that would be pure wishful thinking, but there are enough fans out there who will let themselves be talked into it. Some might hate-watch just to see if Money May finally gets his comeuppance. Filipino fans who back Manny to the hilt will cheer him on to see if he can rewrite history, and as someone of Pinoy heritage, this writer understands that urge.

Sadly, Canelo-GGG 2 just provided a blueprint that Mayweather-Pacquiao 2 will never be able to duplicate. It was a fight that featured two boxers so evenly matched that even 24 rounds later, no one can say which one is decisively better, and one in which all five outcomes — a decision either way, a KO either way, or another draw — were all very much on the table.

That isn’t true for Mayweather and Pacquiao, as Floyd is simply too big and too technical for Manny, and his skills age better than the likes of a purely athletic freak like Roy Jones Jr. It’s a combat sport, so it’s untrue to say Pacquiao couldn’t catch Mayweather with a punch he wasn’t expecting (Shane Mosely did it once, and the Mayweather he did it to was at the height of his powers), but that’s really a hope too remote to be worth shelling out $100 to watch and hope for.

The rematch is almost certainly going to happen, because while it will never match the first fight in terms of pay-per-view buys or overall interest, it will still draw enough of both to be worth it for the boxers. It’s almost just as sure to be an unexciting, drama-less affair as it was in 2015.

Mayweather-Pacquiao 2 will exist entirely to enrich the men who step inside the ring, and while that’s their right, it doesn’t mean we all have to contribute to it.