Pacquiao-Mayweather insult exchange signaling rematch?

Are we getting closer to a potential Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather rematch or is it simply just a war of words?

That’s what everyone from the boxing media to fans all over the globe are trying to figure out Wednesday?

This after Mayweather lit into Pacquiao on his Instagram Tuesday night and now, the eight-division World Champion fired back.

First, this began with Pacquiao’s tremendous performance in his 12-round split decision win Saturday night over previously unbeaten WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman in Las Vegas. Pacquiao scored a first round knockdown of Thurman, dominated the early rounds and then, hurt Thurman significantly with a 10th round body blow on his way to the victory.

With Mayweather, (50-0, 27 KOs) in attendance and sitting ringside as part of the promotional arm of Premier Boxing Champions, the natural questions arose about whether the two would a rematch later this year or in early 2020?

After years of frustration and waiting, the two finally met in May of 2015 and Mayweather dominated a largely dull and anti-climatic battle. Pacquiao later claimed that he had injured his shoulder that required surgery with a 1-year recovery.

So, Mayweather put on social media:

View this post on Instagram

SWIPE LEFT Let's stick to the facts! Bob Arum is no longer your promoter, so when it comes to @mayweatherpromotions & PBC events I’m the HNIC! Bottom line, I make more money than you; I beat you, then I signed you! I was only at your fight supervising you, my employee, as any real BOSS would do. You made $10Million for 12 rounds, when I just made $9M in under 3 minutes playing around in an exhibition with a pizza delivery guy! I beat you mentally, physically and financially! Remember, you fight cause you have to, I fight when I want to! #TMT #TBE #mayweatherpromotions @greg_tmt

A post shared by Floyd Mayweather (@floydmayweather) on Jul 23, 2019 at 10:06pm PDT

Now, not all of that is entirely true. While Mayweather Promotions does agreements with Premier Boxing Champions, Al Haymon is the owner who signed and is paying Pacquiao (62-7-2) on a multi-fight deal.

And now that Pacquiao has won one of the welterweight championships, he’s in a leveraged position to potentially have a huge fight with the likes of unbeaten IBF champion Errol Spence (promoted by PBC) or Terence Crawford, the WBO champion, promoted by Top Rank boxing and Bob Arum.

And, the Pac Man decided to respond on Wednesday on social media:

Excuse me Floyd, your name has not been on any of my PBC contracts. But if you would like to be on the next one, I will have one drawn up and sent to you. #CounterfeitMoney pic.twitter.com/SwFGcpT048

— Manny Pacquiao (@MannyPacquiao) July 24, 2019

The bottom line is: Mayweather hasn’t fought a boxer since decisioning Andre Berto in September of 2015, approaching four years ago. Meanwhile, Pacquiao has clearly demonstrated that he can still fight at a world-class level with three wins in the last 12 months, even though he will turn 41 years of age in December.

Now, the question becomes: is there more to this than just the talk?