Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao Agree September Rematch at Sphere, Live on Netflix
floyd mayweather and Manny Pacquiao have agreed to a professional rematch set for Saturday, 19 September at Sphere in Las Vegas, with the bout to be streamed live on Netflix. The announcement matters because it reunites two of boxing’s highest-profile names, marks Sphere’s first professional boxing match and follows a recent end to Mayweather’s retirement.
Sphere in Las Vegas to stage first professional boxing match
The fight will be the first professional boxing match ever staged at Sphere in Las Vegas. Promoters and the fighters have confirmed the venue and the date—Saturday, 19 September—but details such as the number of rounds and the weight class to be contested remain unclear in the provided context.
Floyd Mayweather returns from retirement
Mayweather, who will be 49 when he fights in September, announced last week that he would come out of retirement for a fourth time. This will be his first professional bout since a 10th-round technical knockout win over Conor McGregor in 2017; since then he has mostly taken part in exhibition bouts. Mayweather has an unblemished professional record of 50 wins with 27 knockouts and said he expects the same result he achieved in 2015, asserting he already beat Pacquiao once and anticipates repeating that outcome.
Manny Pacquiao’s return and career milestones
Pacquiao, 47 at the time of the fight, returned from a political retirement to resume boxing last July when he faced WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios; that fight ended in a draw and Barrios retained the title. Pacquiao relinquished top-level competition in 2021 to focus on a political career before returning to the ring. He holds 62 wins from 73 professional bouts and is a winner of 12 world titles across eight weight classes. Pacquiao framed the rematch as something fans have been waiting for and said he wants Mayweather to live with the one loss on his record and always remember who gave it to him; he also dedicated the fight to Filipinos around the world.
2015 'Fight of the Century' and the fighters’ shared history
The pair first met in 2015 in what was billed as the 'Fight of the Century' and is noted in the record as the richest fight in boxing history. Mayweather prevailed in that meeting by a wide unanimous decision in Las Vegas. Critics described the 2015 encounter as relatively tame with both fighters past their peaks, and commentary in the wake of this agreement suggests September’s bout—featuring fighters who will be 49 and 47 respectively—could be of even lower quality. Both men exchanged statements on Monday that renewed the rivalry ahead of the rematch.
Netflix broadcast and sporting reach
Netflix will stream the rematch live. The platform has been investing in live sports: its 2024 broadcast of Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson drew 108 million live global viewers, the largest live streaming audience recorded for a sporting event in the provided context. Netflix has also carried NFL games on Christmas Day and provided live coverage of climber Alex Honnold scaling a Taipei skyscraper the month before the rematch announcement, underscoring the service’s recent push into live event programming.
Unsettled fight terms and surrounding events
Several fight particulars remain unresolved: the rematch’s rounds and weight classification are unclear in the provided information. Mayweather has also signalled a busy slate, with a scheduled event featuring Mike Tyson this year; Tyson’s return to the ring followed his own controversial comeback, which in the provided context included a November fight that ended in a defeat to YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul after Tyson had ended a 19-year retirement. Mayweather framed his return as part of a wider commercial strategy, saying his events will generate the biggest gates and largest global broadcast audiences.
What makes this notable is the convergence of commercial scale, legacy narratives and venue choice: a rematch between two of boxing’s most lucrative names, staged at a high-profile new arena and carried by a streamer that has proven it can attract massive live audiences.
It remains unclear in the provided context how the fight will be structured beyond date, venue and carriage, and discussions around rounds, weight class and other logistical items are expected to follow as promoters and the fighters finalise terms.
