Manny Pacquiao vs Floyd Mayweather (Photo : Al Bello | Getty Images Entertainment)
It's all speculation at this point, but while it is a little far-fetched, it's certainly not out of the realm of the impossible that eight-division world champion Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KO's) could land his much sought rematch with undefeated pound-for-pound king Floyd "Money" Mayweather (49-0, 26 KO's).
If Pacquiao gets the fight, and his shoulder works as designed, there is a growing contingent of fans who think that he'll do a lot better against Mayweather.
At least one guy certainly thinks so.
"That [expletive] can fight. He's a lot better than what I thought he was," said Floyd Mayweather Jr., in a recent interview with FightHype.com.
"From me being in the ring with Manny Pacquiao, I take my hat off to him and I can see why he went so far in his career."
Pacquiao's performance against Mayweather in the first fight was so-so at best. He did have his moments, but after the fight, Pacquiao complained that he re-aggravated the shoulder injury he suffered during training camp in the 4th round, while he was teeing off on Mayweather against the ropes.
From that point on, it was very evident that Pacquiao could not use his right hand effectively and used it very sparingly. In instances he did throw it, the right hand had no oomph and barely affected Mayweather.
With Pacquiao unable to complete his offense, he became useless against Mayweather and the rest was history.
Pacquiao is slated step into the ring for the final time next year, as a seat at the Philippine senate looms. His final bout is penciled in for April 9, with an opponent to be announced soon. As of this moment, leading the Pacquiao sweepstakes is unbeaten junior welterweight Terence "Bud" Crawford (27-0, 19 KO's) of Omaha, Nebraska.
Mayweather sounded off on his opinion of Crawford.
"Terence Crawford gotta realize that Pacquiao is bigger and stronger than Yuriorkis Gamboa, and he hits harder," said Mayweather.
"Not taking anything away from Yuriorkis Gamboa because I think he didn't fight Yuriorkis Gamboa at 100%, but I don't ever want to take anything away from Terence Crawford because I like that kid."
Crawford's most notable victory was against Gamboa, whom he stopped in 9 rounds. At the time, Gamboa was considered a highly-skilled Cuban former Olympic gold medallist. Crawford blasted him out of the water.
But Mayweather feels Crawford may still have a tough time with Pacquiao, despite Crawford's talents.
"I really, really like [Crawford]. I don't want to take anything away from him because he can really fight. He can fight, but I don't want him to think that just because I made it look that easy with Pacquiao, it's going to be that easy," said Mayweather.
Pacquiao is likely to fight just once next year, if he indeed wins a senate seat, which he is expected to do, making a Mayweather fight only possible in 2017.
Assuming both Mayweather and Pacquiao are still interested in boxing two years from now, when they are two years older, and they are still both interested in facing each other, do you think Pacquiao could do better?
