Following the announcement of a professional rematch with Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather later claimed that the bout would be an exhibition.

The pair of boxing icons first fought in 2015, with Mayweather’s victory contributing to his now famous 50-0 undefeated record. There was intrigue, then, when it was announced in February that he would put that on the line for the first time since 2017 against Pacquiao, who fought professionally just last year.

A month later, Mayweather dialled back on the announcement, saying the fight – set to take place at The Sphere in Las Vegas and be streamed live on Netflix – would not be professionally sanctioned.

Speaking on Inside the Ring, Pacquiao said he believes Mayweather’s comments came from a place of fear, but was confident in the binding contracts.

“I called Jas right away – what happened? That’s not what we signed, we signed a real fight. He’s got his event, he’s announcing this exhibition, blah, blah, blah. Jas told me, I don’t have any idea … I think he’s scared of losing, because that’s his leverage to go around and have exhibitions. If that record was ruined, what else can he leverage?

“For me, he cannot get out of this contract. He will face a lot of consequences if he fails this commitment.”

Echoing those comments, CEO of Manny Pacquiao Promotions, Jas Mathur, then said there is a hard deadline of tomorrow for Mayweather’s team to commit to the original agreement.

“Floyd’s signature is on multiple contracts. Professional fight … Netflix doesn’t want to be involved in [an exhibition], we don’t want that to happen. Look, Floyd cares about money … The attorneys are [speaking].

“[Mayweather’s team] just have to see the light as to the platform and the size of what Netflix is, and all the opportunities it can bring. Tomorrow [is the deadline.] 14th. End of business day. We’re getting ahead. As long as he’s got smart people around him that can see the size of the opportunity, then they can make him a lot of money. More money that he’s made in the last five years.

“All I can say is we are making headway on it, there is a contract in place and I think better sense will prevail here. I hope it will.”

More news is therefore expected this week on the event which, whilst perhaps not the most thrilling prospect for hardcore fans, has all the ingredients to be the biggest boxing event of the year by a distance.