Things may have gotten a little awkward for boxer-cum-Senator Manny Pacquiao and his one-time opponent Floyd Mayweather when the two saw each other at the Staples Center in Los Angeles during a National Basketball Association (NBA) game yesterday.
The two athletes spotted each other at courtside when Pacquiao was giving shirts to the crowd. Instead of ignoring each other however they shook hands like old friends, with Mayweather sporting a toothy grin for the cameras.
Very gentlemanly, both of you.
Check out this video posted by the Clippers’ Twitter account yesterday to see how it went down.
They meet again. Only here.@mannypacquiao | @FloydMayweather | #ClipperNation pic.twitter.com/OQrezLim14
— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) January 9, 2019
Sweet.
The two’s chance meeting is a repeat of their encounter in 2015, when they saw each other at a Miami Heat game in Florida, reported the sports website Boxing Scene.
Pacquiao was at the Staples Center to attend the Clippers’ Filipino Heritage Night, where he got the chance to meet the team’s players at their locker room. Other than Pacquiao, Filipino-American Apl.de.Ap was also there and performed at the game’s half-time show, according to ABS-CBN News.
Fans have been looking forward to seeing the two boxers slug it out in a rematch since last year, especially after Pacquiao announced that he will fight the American boxer in December. He said this after Mayweather posted on his Instagram account a video of him seeing Pacquiao at a concert in Tokyo, where they talked about the fight.
But things didn’t pan out and Mayweather ended up fighting kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa instead. He won the match in a unanimous victory and floored the Japanese fighter three times during the match.
The lopsided win may have prompted Pacquiao to post a shady tweet where he said that as his 2019 New Year’s resolution, he would fight only “experienced opponents” who are his size or even bigger.
But don’t lose hope yet. Pacquiao also said last year that a rematch is a big possibility and that he couldn’t “retire with peace of mind” knowing that Mayweather defeated him in 2015.
Many boxing fans want the same thing, pal. Please make it happen this year.
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