{"id":8737,"date":"2026-03-03T00:45:02","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T19:15:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/03\/mayweather-to-fight-kickboxer-before-pacquiao-rematch\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T00:45:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T19:15:02","slug":"mayweather-to-fight-kickboxer-before-pacquiao-rematch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/03\/mayweather-to-fight-kickboxer-before-pacquiao-rematch\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayweather to fight kickboxer before Pacquiao rematch"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Published45 minutes ago<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Floyd Mayweather will fight veteran Greek kickboxer Mike Zambidis in an exhibition bout in June before his rematch with Manny Pacquiao.<\/p>\n<p>Pacquiao, 47, and Mayweather, 49, <a href=\"\/sport\/boxing\/articles\/c9v0degnx04o\">will fight at Sphere in Las Vegas<\/a> on Saturday, 19 September, live on Netflix, in a rematch of their 2015 &#x27;Fight of the Century&#x27; &#8211; the richest bout in boxing history.<\/p>\n<p>And former five-weight champion Mayweather &#8211; who announced he would come out of retirement for a fourth time two weeks ago &#8211; has decided to take on Zambidis in Athens to prepare for his first professional boxing match in nine years.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;2026 is already shaping up to be an exciting year for me,&quot; American Mayweather said on Instagram.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I&#x27;m on the way to entertain!! Athens, Greece, get ready. This summer will be a legendary battle.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Zambidis, 45, boasts a 157-24 kickboxing record with 87 KOs. His last official fight was in June 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Mayweather has not had a pro bout since beating mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor with a 10th-round technical knockout in 2017.<\/p>\n<h2>Related topics<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/boxing\">Boxing<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/boxing\/articles\/c23zpz5e7pmo\">\n<p>&#x27;Equal in decay&#x27; &#8211; Mayweather v Pacquiao is another boxing &#x27;carnival&#x27;<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Published6 days ago<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/boxing\/articles\/cz0prxzlpgxo\">\n<p>Boxing schedule and results 2026<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Published6 days ago<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/boxing\/articles\/crgy3zy4meyo\">\n<p>Watch every Born to Brawl episode<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Published28 April 2024<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>More boxing from the BBC<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/articles\/cl5q9dk9jl3o\">\n<p>Notifications, social media and more with BBC Sport<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Published16 August 2025<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mayweather to fight kickboxer before Pacquiao rematchImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Floyd Mayweather has competed in eight exhibition bouts since his last professional fightPublished45 minut&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-decor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}