Mayweather could face 'massive' penalty if he nixes Pacquiao rematch at Sphere

Mick Akers, Las Vegas Review-Journal on Apr 3, 2026

Published in Boxing

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LAS VEGAS — Floyd Mayweather could face a hefty fine should he pull out of his planned Sept. 19 rematch with rival Manny Pacquiao at Sphere.

Jas Mathur, CEO of Manny Pacquiao Promotions, said Thursday that both Mayweather and Pacquiao signed multiple contracts for the lauded rematch, to be the first boxing card at Sphere. If Mayweather doesn’t follow though on their agreement, he could face millions in damages for being in breach of contract.

“There’s a massive penalty,” Mathur told the Review-Journal. “There’s gonna be damages and those damages they’re quite substantial. It’s eight-, nine-figure damages.”

Mayweather’s surprising claim

Mayweather, last week, said at an autograph signing in Las Vegas that the Sphere date wasn’t for sure and that the fight is an exhibition.

“We don’t know exactly where the fight is going to be at,” Mayweather said. “The Sphere is one of the places that they talked about. So, we don’t know if it’s 100 percent going to be there. And this is not actually a fight, it’s an exhibition.”

Mayweather’s statements are in contrast to the announcement of the fight by streaming service Netflix, which is scheduled to stream the fight live. Sphere’s social media accounts also promoted the fight announcement. In the news release announcing the bout, Pacquiao noted that he wanted to hand Mayweather, 50-0, 27 knockouts, his first professional loss of his career.

Pacquiao (62-8-3, 39 KOs) went on to say that he wouldn’t fight Mayweather in an exhibition.

Sphere representatives forwarded questions to Netflix about the fight’s status.

Contracts signed

Both Pacquiao’s and Mayweather’s camps took a site visit to Sphere last month and signed three contracts for a sanctioned professional boxing match, not an exhibition, Mathur said.

Mayweather already has borrowed against his planned payout for the fight, Mathur stated.

“Now, he has taken out a loan against the purse,” Mathur said. “So outside of the deposit that he got on upon signing each contract, because he’s there was three different sets of contracts with two parties that ultimately got merged up together.

“He did get deposits and then he also took a loan against the against the purse. So, this is beyond just getting a deposit from the fight contract.”

Mathur said the fight hasn’t been canceled and that he hopes they are able to come to an agreement on the planned megafight.

Mayweather has retained legal counsel, and had a Thursday deadline to move the process forward, Mathur said.

“There is something that needs to be given by today that he has an intention to cure this,” Mathur said. “And if he does, then he’d have 14 days from there to try to cure it. But I’m sure the counsel that he’s retained is going to ask for time to review all the documents and agreements and correspondences and that everyone’s been having.”

Mathur said it could take weeks to figure the situation out, but that process will be carried out by attorneys.

Deadline for preparation

As is the case with Sphere events, there’s several months of planning that goes into the production of the shows, to utilize the massive LED screens inside and outside of the $2.3 billion venue. In order to have adequate time to prepare for the Mexican Independence Day weekend event, Mathur said they’d need a resolution within the next 45 days.

Mayweather has never pulled out of a fight in his 50-fight pro career and Mathur speculated that the reason why he is playing games this time around is that he doesn’t want to put his perfect record on the line.

While Mathur is hoping the situation eventually works out, he wouldn’t speculate if Mayweather could be replaced as Pacquiao’s opponent. If the situation continues with no resolution in the near term, more will be presented on the matter, Mathur said.

“It’s really like Floyd saying the car is black, but really the car is white,” Mathur said. “He’s (Mayweather) insisting it’s black, but really the car is white. And there’s no in between. There’s no shades of gray anywhere. This is a black-and-white situation. It is 100 percent a pro fight. And every agreement is based off that. And he’s been aware and he’s actually been part of the negotiations, everything.

“So, if push comes to shove and it goes down a certain road, well, at that point, certain materials that are confidential today will no longer be confidential, right? So, yeah, it’s a very, it’s a very transparent situation.”

Pacquiao speaks

In an interview posted on Instagram by Jay Oh Otamias, five-division champion Pacquaio said contracts already have been signed for the May-Pac 2 rematch and the agreement was for a sanctioned fight, not an exhibition.

“Maybe he think(s) I’m going to take him lightly,” Pacquiao said in the video. “But the contract we signed is a real fight.”

Pacquiao was also scheduled for an exhibition fight ahead of the Mayweather bout, against Ruslan Provodnikov on April 18 at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center. That event has been postponed, with the new target date being June 6, a person with knowledge of the proceedings told the Review-Journal.