The mind games have begun in the rematch between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather.
Pacquiao revealed his new base of operations for his upcoming fight at Sphere in Las Vegas in September to Ring Magazine in an article published Tuesday. It is the location of one of his rival’s closed Mayweather Boxing + Fitness gyms in Los Angeles, now branded as a Pacquiao Prime Boxing club.
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It’s not a move we would describe as subtle, especially with Pacquiao’s camp talking about stripping the gym of all of Mayweather’s images and branding.
The move was also reportedly orchestrated by Jas Mathur, a former business associate of Mayweather who is now the CEO of Pacquiao Promotions. He insisted this was merely a business decision
From The Ring:
“This is not an emotional decision, it’s a business decision,” Mathur told The Ring. “We’re not looking at anything Mayweather Boxing + Fitness did. We have our own model, and it’s the first of many Pacquiao Prime Boxing locations we want to open. It’s the first step in a much bigger plan that we have.
“It was cool that this space had the Mayweather name on it and whatnot, but we did it more for the location. It’s in a very visible, high-traffic and landmark area for what we want to accomplish moving forward. We envision many professional fighters, athletes, celebrities and top trainers wanting to be here.”
To be clear, the Mayweather Boxing + Fitness location was reportedly shuttered because the franchise owner decided not to renew the lease. There are still dozens of Mayweather locations worldwide, though there have been whispers of financial troubles for “Money” in the past few months.
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The Mayweather-Pacquiao rematch was announced in February and will be a Netflix-aired redux of the the best-selling boxing bout of all time, in which Mayweather beat Pacquiao by lopsided unanimous decision in 2015.
There has already been some contention over the terms of the agreement outlined by Netflix. Mayweather curiously insisted the Sphere venue wasn’t a done deal and insisted the fight was actually an exhibition, which wouldn’t threaten his prized 50-0 record.
Pacquiao’s camp responded by indicating they would hold Mayweather, whose exhibition bouts have a spotty financial history, to the “binding agreement” he signed.
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