Manny Pacquiao Vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. Talks Back On, Pacquiao Claims — Again: Wants Floyd As Final Fight

Manny Pacquiao wants Floyd Mayweather Jr. as his final opponent — for real this time. Just two weeks after he backtracked on an earlier claim that his representatives were negotiating with the Mayweather team to stage a rematch of their historic — yet disappointing — May 2 fight, the Philippines icon is at it again, taking to his Facebook account to resurrect the claim.

Earlier in October, Pacquiao made the claim that rematch talks were underway, even though Mayweather has announced that his fight in September against Andre Berto, which went down as expected with yet another lopsided decision victory for Mayweather, was the final fight of his undefeated, 49-bout career.

The Berto fight left Mayweather at 49-0, tying the record set by 1950s-era heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano for most wins in an undefeated career — which has led to widespread speculation among boxing fans and insiders that the 38-year-old Mayweather’s current “retirement” is no more permanent than his previous three announced “retirements,” going back to 2006 when Mayweather “retired” after winning the lineal welterweight championship over slow-footed Argentine Carlos Baldomir.

But Mayweather came out of his alleged retirement the next year to fight “Golden Boy” Oscar De La Hoya in what became — at least until Mayweather’s megafight against Pacquiao this year — the biggest moneymaking boxing event of all time.

But just as talks for a rematch with De La Hoya were heating up, Mayweather again declared himself retired from boxing — only to step into the ring again in December of 2007 to meet a challenge from brash British welterweight Ricky Hatton.

After knocking out Hatton in the 10th round of that fight, Mayweather once again “retired,” this time taking a full 18 months off from boxing, until he returned once again to fight Mexican legend Juan Manuel Marquez in what turned out to be another seemingly effortless unanimous decision win.

Mayweather has fought on a somewhat regular schedule since then, getting in nine more fights before declaring retirement Number Four with the September 12 Berto fight in 2015.

Now Manny Pacquiao, who has not stepped into the ring since losing what turned out to be a nondescript decision to Mayweather on May 2 in a fight that reportedly grossed north of $400 million, says that he seeks one, final opponent for a career-ending fight in April of 2016 — and he wants that opponent to be Floyd Mayweather Jr.

In fact, in a Facebook post, Pacquiao once again claimed that talks are on between his camp and the Mayweather side to hammer out the rematch particulars.

“I don’t know yet who’s my opponent next but we’re still negotiating right now about the rematch with Floyd Mayweather so hoping for that,” said the 36-year-old Pacquiao, who plans to run for the Senate in his home country next year and has vowed to devote himself full-time to that job if he wins election.

Pacquiao currently serves as a congressman in the Philippines, but has continued to divide his time between legislative commitments and his boxing career.

In response to Pacquiao’s latest claim to be negotiating a rematch with Mayweather, Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather’s longtime right-hand man and CEO of his promotional company, flatly denied that Mayweather would come out of retirement.

Floyd Mayweather is RETIRED, end of discussion.

— Leonard Ellerbe (@LEllerbe) October 26, 2015

But Ellerbe’s claim was also met with unrestrained skepticism, even by ESPN boxing correspondent Dan Rafael.

@LEllerbe So you’re saying there’s a chance for a Pacquiao rematch???????????????????

— Dan Rafael (@danrafaelespn) October 26, 2015

Mayweather would be 39 years old and Pacquiao 37 by the time a proposed rematch would take place in April between the two already-legendary fighters.

Meanwhile, Mayweather showed no signs that he is preparing to enter the boxing ring again, photographed over the weekend carrying stacks of cash wrapped in plastic into the high-end King of Diamonds nightclub in Miami, Florida.

If the Manny Pacquiao vs, Floyd Mayweather Jr. rematch does not come together, most boxing insiders believe that 28-year-old British welterweight Amir Khan would be the most likely candidate to fill the role of Pacquiao’s farewell foe.

[Featured Photo By Al Bello / Getty Images]