Floyd Mayweather Jr vs Manny Pacquiao II has the potential to be the most watched sporting event of all time according to those close to the deal that made the rematch a reality.
On Monday night, it was confirmed the boxing legends will once again meet in the ring this September live on Netflix, 11 years on from their first bout.
Mayweather vs Pacquiao still stands as the highest grossing boxing event of all-time with the former successfully defending his WBA and WBC welterweight titles that night while adding his opponent’s WBO strap to his collection. Mayweather secured a clean sweep of the judges’ scorecards, securing a unanimous decision win to stay undefeated.
‘The Fight of the Century’ took over six years to make having fallen by the wayside repeatedly before a deal was finally struck in 2015. Pacquiao has long argued a shoulder injury hampered him on the night and will have the chance to avenge the biggest defeat of his storied career later this year.
At 49 and 47 respectively, Mayweather and Pacquiao are long past their best. Mayweather has not fought professionally in almost nine years, keeping his sizeable coffers filled with a string of exhibition bouts against opponents ranging from former Geordie Shore stars to the extended family of the New York Mafia.
The more active Pacquiao has shown he can still cut it among the best on occasion – but has also paid the price for pushing himself too far.
Boxing has undergone drastic changes over the last decade. Controversial figures like Jake Paul now sit at the sport’s top table, a draw for the sport’s biggest names despite being nowhere near world title gold.
Streaming platforms now host many of the biggest fights in the game with relics like HBO Boxing which hosted the first Mayweather vs Pacquiao fight now a distant memory.
After Netflix hosted Jake Paul’s bouts against Mike Tyson and Anthony Joshua and with Tyson Fury to mark his return to boxing on the platform in April, boxing is finding new homes and new audiences.
Pacquiao’s long-time advisor Sean Gibbons has watched those names take centre stage in recent years but believes Mayweather and Pacquaio, even at 49 and 47 years old respectively, remain the biggest draws in the sport – confident they will ‘dominate again’ in 2026.
Asked if this could be the most watched sporting event of all-time, Gibbons told Metro via Betway: ‘I’ve got to believe so. It did the most during the pay-per-view model years and Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul was a tremendous event, but Mike Tyson carried that event, his name is worldwide, everywhere and he carried it.
‘Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather are known to everybody worldwide.
‘So, when you reach the casuals [casual boxing fans], just the people that may not even be boxing fans, but they’re like, “Oh, Mayweather-Pacquiao, this is it, I have to look at this. This is really intriguing or interesting”.
‘So, I believe it’s like Tyson Fury. He’s a big name to us, but you put him on Netflix in the U.S, I’m going to tune in because I’m a boxing guy, but a lot of your regular people, they don’t know Tyson Fury.
‘They don’t even know Deontay Wilder. But everybody, I don’t care who it is, I talked to some lady in the bank, I talked to some lady at the grocery store, I talked to some guy on the street and they want to watch this. Casual people, not even fight fans know Mayweather and Pacquiao.
‘The last 20 years, they’ve been the two names that dominated the sport, and here we are in 2026, and they’re going to dominate again.
After the first meeting with Pacquaio, Mayweather fought twice more as a professional, beating Andre Berto and Conor McGregor to go 50-0 and surpass Rocky Marciano’s perfect record.
Pacquaio twice retired in 2016 and 2021 but demonstrated he is still a legitimate threat in the professional game with a hugely impressive performance against WBC welterweight champion Maro Barrios last July.
‘Pacman’ was convinced he has won the fight but judges ruled it a draw, missing out on the chance to become world champion again.