Les Moonves tells Freddie Roach he can deliver Mayweather-Pacquiao 2

Well, this may well be the beginning of another perpetual May-Pac news cycle. That can been seen as either a good or bad thing, depending on your point of view. But word through the LA Times is that trainer Freddie Roach recently ran into CBS top dog Les Moonves at a restaurant and told the powerful executive that Manny Pacquiao wants another shot at Floyd Mayweather in 2017.

“Let’s do it again,” Moonves said, according to Roach.

“Can you deliver Mayweather?” Roach asked.

“Yes,” Moonves said, according to Roach.

Now perhaps taken in isolation this may not seem like the biggest deal. But with Mayweather spotted in a sparring session just last week there’s sufficient reason to believe that he’ll come back for a 50th fight, perhaps making this a viable option — and I’m saying this as one of the very few people who thought Floyd would actually hold firm on his retirement plans.

Stephen Espinoza of Showtime, a network owned by CBS, says that thus far Floyd has held firm on his retirement in his interactions with the now-promoter, but says he won’t stop trying to goad Mayweather into a return.

“Floyd’s been as consistent as he’s ever been. He says he enjoys retirement and promoting and won’t engage with us, even in a joking way, about coming back,” Espinoza said. “So I’m not sure how to get the ball rolling in regard to getting him back in the ring, but I’m not going to give up.”

That said, the big, big network boss appears to be confident that he can get the ball rolling with Mayweather, and if so, we might soon find ourselves knee-deep in another May-Pac extravaganza.