Mayweather, Pacquiao agree to September rematch

LOS ANGELES:

Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao have agreed to a rematch of their landmark 2015 bout.

Their second fight will be held on September 19 in Las Vegas, the boxing icons announced on Monday. The fight, which will be streamed on Netflix, will be the first boxing match to be held at Sphere, the immersive event venue east of the Strip.

Mayweather, who turns 49 years old on Tuesday, announced his intention last week to end his nine-year retirement from competitive boxing. The 47-year-old Pacquiao ended his own retirement last year, and he is scheduled to meet Ruslan Provodnikov on April 18 in the second bout of his comeback.

The two most prominent boxers of their generation will meet again 11 years after Mayweather beat Pacquiao by decision in a fight that didn't live up to the decade of hype preceding it. The bout's promoters claimed it was still the most profitable fight in history, setting pay-per-view records and attracting worldwide attention.

"I already fought and beat Manny once," Mayweather said in a statement. "This time will be the same result."

Pacquiao later revealed he fought with a shoulder injury because he didn't want to postpone such an important event. He was unable to apply his usual offensive pressure to Mayweather, who employed his usual defence-first strategy while easing to victory.

ONE LOSS

"The fans have waited long enough -- they deserve this rematch," Pacquiao said. "I want Floyd to live with the one loss on his professional record and always remember who gave it to him."

The fighters' first meeting happened more than a half-decade after fans first began to clamour for an obvious matchup between two similarly-sized greats. Both sides blamed the other for the delay at times, but Mayweather always asserted he would fight whoever he wanted, whenever he wanted -- leading many fans to feel Mayweather waited to accept the bout until he felt age had taken a bit of sting out of Pacquiao's famously vicious punches.

- AP