Floyd Mayweather stole the headlines away this afternoon from the Golovkin vs Canelo rematch with his own rematch news against Manny Pacquiao.

The pair originally fought in May of 2015 in what was at the time an underwhelming fight that saw Mayweather run out an easy victor by unanimous points decision.

The fight set the record in boxing for most money ever generated in a huge financial bonanza for both men, selling 4.6 million pay per views in the US alone.

Boxing at the moment is experiencing a boom time with the likes of ESPN, DAZN and Fox all investing heavily into the sport’s distribution on TV and online.

Mayweather has stated today on Instagram:

“I’m coming back to fight Manny Pacquiao this year. Another 9 figure pay-day on the way.”

The question is firstly on what network in the US?

The front-runner would have to be Showtime as this is who Mayweather has worked with traditionally before he retired.

But despite the lashing out of hardcore fans today to the news, there is no denying the fight will still sell a lot to casual sports fans.

So there could possibly be a number of networks bidding for the fight.

Both guys are out of contract and are their own bosses at the moment so this could happen anywhere.

How many pay per view buys will it do?

Probably less than half of the first fight.

I’m estimating in the region of 1.5 – 2 million pay per view buys in the US.