The September 19 rematch between boxing legends Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao is “still on,” despite Mayweather’s apparent “breach of contract” following his recent comments about the planned showdown in Las Vegas.
During a meet and greet at Caesar’s Palace this past Saturday, Mayweather told Vegas Sports Today “we don’t know the location of the fight. The Sphere is one of the places that they talked about. So we don’t know if it’s a hundred percent going to be there. And this is not actually a fight. It’s an exhibition.”
Jas Mathur, CEO of Manny Pacquiao Promotions and a producer for the event, objected to Mayweather’s comments, telling ESPN Wednesday that the undefeated fighter’s statements run afoul of their agreement.
“As of right now, the fight is still on. There is no termination of any sort, and he has signed for a professional fight,” Mathur said. “Floyd Mayweather is officially in breach of his contract. He’s been in a breach since the day he went out and said what he said on Saturday and he’s officially in a breach as of yesterday.”
Mathur told ESPN that he’s been in discussions with Mayweather’s team since the boxer’s comments on Saturday, with Team Mayweather insisting on the fight being changed from a sanctioned professional bout to an exhibition, which is one of several breaches of the fight contract.
Mathur suggested that Mayweather was also aware of a recent site visit to The Sphere that included 35-40 representatives Manny Pacquiao Promotions, Mayweather Promotions and Netflix, along with producers Hidden Empires, EverWonder Studios and Limitless X Holdings.
Mayweather’s proposed June exhibition with Greek kickboxer Mike Zambidis is also in direct breach of his agreement to face Pacquiao, according to Mathur, who added that there is a cure period where Mayweather can rectify the violation after receiving written notice of the breach.
Mathur also stated that Mayweather has already taken out an advance on his fight purse.
“Floyd Mayweather signed not one, not two, but three different agreements on three different dates with two different parties that ultimately got intertwined in the month of January,” Mathur said. “And this is all related to his return to professional boxing. First one was on October 24th. The second one was on November 6th. Third one was on December 14th. He received money for all three agreements when he signed them. Not only that, but he’s also taken out an advance on his purse for his fight against Pacquiao.”
Mayweather-Pacquiao 2 was announced in February as a professional boxing match just days after Mayweather stated he would be coming out of retirement in an event set for The Sphere and to be streamed globally on Netflix.
The fight was set to be, what Mathur called, the “first ever sports and entertainment event in boxing” that will be a spectacle and leverage the technology of the $2.3 billion entertainment venue.
“No one in these last three months has brought up anything related to the venue or related to the fight not being a professional fight,” Mathur said. “His team has had all the contracts. He signed all the contracts. We have the DocuSign proofs as well as wet signatures with his device ID, with his IP address, with everything there.”
Ultimately, there will now be a standoff as Mathur said Manny Pacquiao will not budge on changing the fight to an exhibition as he has been steadfast in avenging his 2015 loss to Mayweather.
“If he’s scared of Manny and he does not want to put his record on the line in a professional boxing match, not only should he have never executed any of these agreements, but he should just come out right and say it because Manny ain’t scared,” Mathur said.
“We put this together to put on something that the fans would love and would be a massive sports event. We wanted to do something that makes history and he wants to come around and try to change terms last minute because he thinks he can. No, he can’t. Not happening.”
