Pacquiao vs. Mayweather, Round 2: It's a match made in money heaven, but is it worth the risk?

Manny Pacquaio was deep in the moment on Saturday night, yet at the most dramatic point of an absorbing fight, he couldn’t help but notice a sight he thought he’d never live to witness.

As his rival Keith Thurman toppled to the canvas from a swift burst of first-round punches, there was Floyd Mayweather in Pacquiao’s peripheral vision, a beaming grin on his face, rising from his ringside seat with arms raised in celebration.

Had Mayweather suddenly turned into one of his former foe’s biggest fans? Or could “Money” see dollar signs flashing before him? After all, Pacquiao’s eventual split decision victory once again ignited talk of a potential rematch between the two most famed and accomplished boxers of their generation.

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Fight fans hope it is the latter. The long-awaited 2015 bout between the pair was an epic dud, with an injury-hampered Pacquiao failing to make any impact and Mayweather riding his safety-first calling card to a snoozer of a points victory. It was a stain on the sport, yet the appetite to see it done again — but better — is real and present.

Now that Pacquiao has shown he remains in fine fettle past 40, chatter about a second clash has never been stronger, despite Mayweather being retired. Pacquiao wants it — and his camp is doing everything it can to get it.

“I want that fight also,” Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach told me in a telephone interview. “That’s why we are still here. I always thought that eventually Floyd would be one of our opponents again. I am still a bit embarrassed about the first fight. We didn’t fight how we can, Manny had an injury, it was just a bad fight.”

Yes, Mayweather is retired. But he was retired in 2008, before coming back to fight 11 more times. He was retired in late 2015 after taking on Andre Berto, only to resurface for a cross-sport exhibition against Conor McGregor. And he was retired this past New Year’s Eve, only to surface in Japan to pocket some spare millions for defeating a 20-year-old kickboxer for another exhibition.

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Persuading him to take on Pacquiao, especially after his impressive and energetic performance against Thurman, is a different story.

“We don’t know what buttons to push yet,” Roach added.

Team Pacquiao is pushing a lot of buttons, and hoping that one of them will hit the jackpot. A Mayweather rematch offers huge upside for the Filipino star. He could potentially avenge the disappointment stemming from the biggest fight of his career, further cement his legacy as one of the best ever and make more money than he could hope to against any other opponent.

For Mayweather to even consider it, Pacquiao had to do his part against Thurman. A loss on Saturday night would have wilted the public calls for Mayweather-Pacquiao II, irreversibly.

Instead, he poached Thurman’s undefeated record and outfought a man who many thought would be too long, and too strong.

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Yet this wasn’t a bludgeoning knockout, and Pacquiao took plenty of punches in the latter stages. While Mayweather is 42 and looks heavier than the gym rat we were used to in his prime, he would like his chances of still being able to connect with Pacquiao frequently.

Pacquiao’s manager Sean Gibbons believes Mayweather’s pride, and the prospect of making a similar amount to the estimated $220 million he took home from the first fight (thanks to 4.6 million pay-per-view buys), make it a possibility — though far from a certainty.

“I saw a lot of Floyd before the fight,” Gibbons joked when we spoke on Sunday. “I sure didn’t see him at the end. He got out of there pretty quickly.

“He might be thinking — ‘Why would I want to face Manny Pacquiao when he looks like this?’ But maybe it will it come to a point for Floyd’s ego where he can’t. We are looking for Santa to come down the chimney with Floyd in the bag, but if not, we will move on and see what is next.”

If Mayweather does show an indication of wishing to return to the ring, negotiations should be far less fractured than the drawn-out process that delayed the initial match-up for years. The main reason? Pacquiao is now aligned with Premier Boxing Champions guru and long-time Mayweather advisor Al Haymon. Saturday’s card was showcased on FOX PPV.

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Leonard Ellerbe, CEO of Mayweather Promotions and the co-promoter of Pacquiao-Thurman, insisted last week that Mayweather had “zero interest” in coming back. Yet such assurances and certainties in boxing should always be taken through a skeptical lens.

Boxing writer Lance Pugmire of The Athletic believes that a rematch would do massive business, big enough to test Mayweather’s retirement pledge to its limit.

“We know Floyd Mayweather is all about the money,” Pugmire said. “So how can he deny the cash that will be on the table after this? Pacquiao showed he is back to being even better than the fighter who lost to Mayweather. This would be a far more competitive fight than in 2015.

“The names still resonate. You could bill it in so many different ways – perhaps the farewell fight for both of them. Quite simply, it is a fight that financially has to happen.”

If it does, boxing fans will get their wish, Pacquiao will get another crack and both men will get insanely rich(er).

After all, money talks, and it must be screaming in the ear of Money Mayweather right now.

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