Exhibition match? Mayweather backtracks on Pacquiao rematch

Floyd Mayweather won’t be risking his perfect 50-0 win-loss record on the 19 September show on Netflix in Las Vegas.

Speaking to select media over the weekend, Mayweather swears that his meeting with Manny Pacquiao isn’t even an actual professional bout but “an exhibition.”

Last month, Netflix made an announcement that Pacquiao and Mayweather are facing off in a rematch at The Sphere in Las Vegas.

But based on Mayweather’s latest remarks, it is not even sure that the match is taking place there.

“As of right now, we don’t know exactly where the fight is going to be at,” said Mayweather, who defeated Pacquiao on a unanimous decision in May 2015 at the MGM Grand.

“The Sphere is one of the places that they’ve talked about, so we don’t know if it’s 100 per cent going to be there.”

Mayweather, 49, insists the Pacquiao match “is not actually a fight…it’s an exhibition.”

“If I’m just sitting at home and I’m working out every day and spending time with my grandson and spending time with my children, I said why not go out and have little fun and entertain the public with some exhibitions?”

A pair of exhibitions is also being lined up for Mayweather in the coming months, including one with Mike Tyson and another against a Greek kickboxer.

The Netflix announcement made it clear that the Mayweather-Pacquiao bout would be a regular, sanctioned professional fight.

Pacquiao, 47, has yet to respond to Mayweather’s statements but he has been training the last three weeks in full anticipation of that coveted second meeting.

If Mayweather treats it like an exhibition, it doesn’t mean that Pacquiao would.

Mayweather better come armed to the teeth.