Mayweather warms up against kickboxers in June ahead of Pacquiao's '146.2 billion money feast' match

*This content was translated by AI.

Floyd Mayweather (49, USA), the legendary unbeaten boxer, will face a kickboxer first ahead of the "confrontation of the century" against Manny Pacquiao (48, Philippines). It is expected to be an opportunity to boost the sense of play ahead of the match against Pacquiao for the first time in 11 years.

The BBC reported on the 3rd (Korea time) that Mayweather will play an extra match against kickboxer Mike Zambidis (46, Greece) at the Telecom Center in Athens, Greece in June.

Eleven years ago in 2015, the two had their first showdown. It was a match of the century that took an astronomical amount of money, with 4.6 million paper-view (PPV) sales and $72 million (about 105.4 billion won) in admission revenue at MGM Grand Garden Arena alone.

The Sun, a British media outlet, said, "At the time, the two players ended a half-century of debate with a profit of £500 million," adding, "However, Mayweather became interested in returning as Netflix stepped into the boxing world. "I was only thinking about Pacquiao as an opponent for the return match," he explained.

At that time, the prevailing evaluation was that there was nothing to see in the famous feast. Unlike Pacquiao, who was aggressive, Mayweather did not thoroughly manage the game and won the match by all judges after the 12th round, but public opinion was not good.

Mayweather left the professional stage in 2017 after a showdown with UFC fighter Conor McGregor, who recently reversed his retirement and announced his return to active duty after nine years.

Mayweather is considered the most complete boxer in history. Has been a five-weight champion and fought 50 times and never lost. Among the 50 wins, there were 27 knockouts.

Pacquiao was also a powerhouse who could hardly find an opponent. If Mayweather played a thoroughly practical game in the professional league with 62 wins (39KO) and two draws and eight losses in 72 games, Pacquiao had a tendency to be prepared with an aggressive style.

Ahead of the match against Pacquiao, he chose kickboxer Zambidis as an object to coordinate his sense of play. Zambidis, who has 157 wins and 24 losses (87KO) in kickboxing, has also not had an official record since June 2015, but will be back in the ring for the first time in 11 years to face Mayweather.

Mayweather and Pacquiao will face off on September 20 at Las Vegas Sphere in Nevada. Netflix will be in charge of live broadcasting. According to the BBC, the two are expected to be guaranteed more than $50 million (about 73.1 billion won) each.

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*This content was translated by AI.