Manny Pacquiao buys shuttered Floyd Mayweather gym, will use it as base of operations for upcoming rematch

Manny Pacquiao knows what he's doing by buying an old Floyd Mayweather gym.

(Elsa via Getty Images)

The mind games have begun in the rematch between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather.

Pacquiao revealed his new base of operations for his upcoming fight at Sphere in Las Vegas in September to Ring Magazine in an article published Tuesday. It is a former location of his rival’s Mayweather Boxing + Fitness chain of gyms in Los Angeles, now branded as a Pacquiao Prime Boxing club.

It’s not a move we would describe as subtle, especially with Pacquiao’s camp talking about stripping the gym of all of Mayweather’s images and branding.

The move was also reportedly orchestrated by Jas Mathur, a former business associate of Mayweather who is now the CEO of Pacquiao Promotions. He insisted this was merely a business decision

From The Ring:

“This is not an emotional decision, it’s a business decision,” Mathur told The Ring. “We're not looking at anything Mayweather Boxing + Fitness did. We have our own model, and it's the first of many Pacquiao Prime Boxing locations we want to open. It's the first step in a much bigger plan that we have.

“It was cool that this space had the Mayweather name on it and whatnot, but we did it more for the location. It's in a very visible, high-traffic and landmark area for what we want to accomplish moving forward. We envision many professional fighters, athletes, celebrities and top trainers wanting to be here.”

To be clear, the Mayweather Boxing + Fitness location was reportedly shuttered because the franchise owner decided not to renew the lease. There are still dozens of Mayweather locations worldwide, though there have been whispers of financial troubles for “Money” in the past few months.