Philippine boxer Manny Pacquiao claimed he decided to fight again because he felt ridiculed by Floyd Mayweather Jr. when the two met in Japan. Pacquiao and Mayweather met in Tokyo, Japan, last September at an electronic dance music concert. During the meeting the two discussed plans to fight again.
According to Pacquiao, Mayweather claimed to be ready to return from retirement to face the 39-year-old boxer. Pacquiao also really wants to rematch with Mayweather because he did not accept the defeat of the absolute numbers in the fight in 2015 and titled ‘The Fight of the Century’. Because, at that time Pacquiao had to do a duel in the condition of a shoulder injury.
“We talked, and you know, he said he wanted to come back from retirement to fight and challenge me, but I told him:” I got a belt, and you have to challenge me and get out of retirement,” Pacquiao told a news conference. ahead of the Broner quoted from ABS-CBN.
“And I decided [rematch]. I said that, because in that situation he [tried] to make fun of me,” Pacquiao added.
The fight against Mayweather will be Pacquiao’s last wish before deciding to retire from boxing.
“It will be different this time because there will be no reason. I can’t retire calmly because of the first defeat. If you watch again, he doesn’t throw a lot of punches,” he said.
As for the first fight, Pacquiao claimed to lose to Mayweather because he was suffering from a shoulder injury.
Nevertheless, Pacquiao did not want rumors of a repeat fight against Mayweather to interfere with his preparations with Adrien Broner, Pacquiao is currently preparing to face Adrian Broner at the MGM Grand garden Arena, Las Vegas, on January 19,2019. Therefore, the 39-year-old boxer chose to focus on fighting with Adrien Broner and ignored the issue of the duel against Mayweather. According to Pacquiao he was ready to talk a lot about Mayweather after facing Broner.
“We cannot underestimate Adrien Broner, we cannot rule out this fight. I have to go through this duel before talking about a fight again with Floyd Mayweather,” Pacquiao said.
Previously, Mayweather had also planned to fight against the Japanese kickboxer, Tenshin Nasukawa in December. It’s just that the fight must be canceled because Mayweather felt he had never agreed to an official duel with Nasukawa. The agreement made by Mayweather is only a 9-minute exhibition battle.
