Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao agree rematch at Sphere — floyd mayweather to return on 19 September
Boxing greats Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather have agreed a professional rematch that will be staged at Sphere in Las Vegas on Saturday, 19 September. The bout will be streamed live on Netflix, and the announcement reunites two fighters whose first meeting in 2015 remains the richest fight in boxing history.
Sphere, date and streaming plans for the September rematch
The fight is scheduled for Saturday, 19 September at Sphere in Las Vegas and will be the first professional boxing match to be staged at that venue. The bout will be streamed live on Netflix, and it is not yet known over how many rounds or at what weight class the rematch will be contested.
Floyd Mayweather's record, comeback and exhibition run
Floyd Mayweather has an unblemished professional record of 50 wins, with 27 coming by knockout, and announced he would come out of retirement for a fourth time last week. This will be his first professional bout since beating Conor McGregor by a 10th-round technical knockout in 2017. He has taken part in a string of exhibition bouts since retiring in 2017 and is scheduled to face Mike Tyson this year; the Tyson fight will be the former undisputed world heavyweight champion's first fight since he ended a 19-year retirement in November in a controversial defeat by YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul.
Manny Pacquiao's return, titles and recent fights
Manny Pacquiao, a winner of 12 world titles across eight weight classes, retired in 2021 to focus on his political career before returning last July to fight WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios, who retained his title after a draw. Pacquiao has 62 wins from his 73 bouts. In October he said he and Mayweather were close to agreeing a rematch but added it was dependent on the pair being able to "understand each other. " Pacquiao has also said: "Floyd and I gave the world what remains the biggest fight in boxing history. The fans have waited long enough. They deserve this rematch. I want Floyd to live with the one loss on his professional record and always remember who gave it to him, " and dedicated the fight to his fellow Filipinos around the world and to bringing glory to the Philippines.
How their 2015 meeting and the interlude frame expectations
Mayweather and Pacquiao first met in 2015 in a bout billed as the "Fight of the Century"; Mayweather emerged victorious with a wide unanimous decision in Las Vegas. That 2015 meeting is still described as the richest fight in boxing history. Commentators have said the 2015 fight was generally seen as a tame affair with both fighters past their peaks, and some assessments in the build-up to the rematch predict September's bout, which will be streamed live, is likely to be of an even lower quality. It has also been noted that this rematch will take place without belts on the line.
Mayweather's post‑2015 timeline and the streaming landscape
In September 2015 Mayweather defended his WBC, WBA and Ring Magazine welterweight titles with a unanimous decision over Andre Berto, moving to 49-0 before a first retirement. He later returned for a crossover event with Conor McGregor, promoted as "The Biggest Fight in Combat Sports History, " which Mayweather won by TKO in Round 10 and which secured his 50-0 record. Since then he has staged exhibition bouts with Tenshin Nasukawa in December 2018—Nasukawa was flattened three times and stopped inside one round—an eight-round exhibition with Logan Paul in June 2021 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami that went the distance with no winner declared, and an exhibition in May 2022 in the United Arab Emirates against Don Moore that went eight rounds while Mayweather dominated and scored a knock-down. Media figures such as Michael Eaves have reacted to the announcement. Streaming platforms have been central to recent big events: one 2024 broadcast of Jake Paul v Mike Tyson attracted 108 million live global viewers, making it the most-streamed sporting event in history, and streamers have expanded into live sports and other live spectacles, including NFL games on Christmas Day and coverage of Alex Honnold scaling a Taipei skyscraper last month.
Some coverage lists Mayweather's age as 48 while other coverage says he will be 49 when he fights and that he turns 49 on Tuesday; unclear in the provided context. Pacquiao is listed as 47. The two fighters have publicly exchanged the same central lines on the rematch—Mayweather saying, "I already fought and beat Manny once. This time will be the same result, " and Pacquiao insisting the fans deserve the rematch—and the bout will again put their records and recent activity under scrutiny when floyd mayweather and Manny Pacquiao meet in Las Vegas on 19 September.
