Social Media Data Shows Floyd Mayweather Jr. Vs. Manny Pacquiao 2 Still Captivates Boxing Fans

While boxing purists don’t necessarily want to see a rematch between Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao, data shows why boxing fans at large are still hanging on to hope that 2020 will be the year this topic gets put to rest one way or another. Since their mega fight on May 2, 2015 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, where Mayweather won by unanimous decision, the two fighters have been connected to each other with the hopes of a second fight taking place. It’s going on five years now, pretty much the same amount of time it took for the first fight to finally get made.

A year ago, I wrote about how Mayweather is retired for good since defeating Conor McGregor by TKO in 2017 with his real final boxing match against Andre Berto having taken place in 2015. Pacquiao on the other hand is still going strong, having defeated five quality opponents in Tim Bradley, Jessie Vargas, Lucas Matthysse, Adrien Broner and Keith Thurman and a controversial defeat to Jeff Horn in 2017. One can make the argument that Pacquiao hasn’t really lost since fighting Mayweather in 2015.

In addition to Sean Gibbons, the President of Manny Pacquiao Promotions expressing why a Mayweather fight won’t happen, The oddsmakers, such as BetOnline have appeared to have given up on a Mayweather vs. Pacquiao 2 fight taking place as they’ve shifted their focus on Mayweather entering the Octagon. They had been hanging on for years with odds for a Mayweather vs. Pacquaio rematch by posting odds that had Mayweather as the favorite.

This could be attributed to UFC President Dana White teasing the idea of working with Mayweather in some capacity in 2020 with a recent social media post showing Mayweather in his boxing trunks and hands wrapped.

THE DATA

With all of the being said, Mayweather and Pacquiao still reign supreme when it comes to their social media footprint even if growth has diminished in the past five years. They’re still stronger than their peers.

TOP MANNY PACQUIAO AND FLOYD MAYWEATHER SOCIAL INSIGHTS

In 2019, Pacquiao had a ListenFirst Fan Growth score that was only 12.37 percent of what his Fan Growth score was in 2015 (735,892 compared to 5,948,248), the year of the Mayweather fight. Meanwhile the drop off in growth for Mayweather on social media is even more dramatic. In 2019, his ListenFirst Fan Growth score was only 0.53 percent the size of what it was in 2015 (45,861 compared to 8,721,858).  

That's not to say that overall Pacquiao and Mayweather have less social media fans that they did five years ago, just that they're acquiring new fans at a much slower rate. For instance on December 31, 2015, Pacquiao had an overall ListenFirst Fan Footprint of 15.5 million which five years later on December 31, 2019 grew to a Fan Footprint of 20.6 million. Mayweather had a ListenFirst Fan Footprint of 29.8 Million on December 31, 2015 which had increased to a Fan Footprint of 44.5 million by December 31, 2019. The ListenFirst Fan Footprint measures the total audience that a person has attracted to their owned digital channels.   

Tracy David, Chief Marketing Officer for social analytics platform ListenFirst, said, "During the last five years, the social media data around Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. paints a clear picture. There's less of a real-time conversation around both fighters and they are generating fewer new followers on platforms like Twitter and Instagram. However, that Mayweather and Pacquiao both have more of a social media following than younger stars like Canelo Álvarez and Gennady Golovkin, speaks to why there's still so much anticipation around a potential rematch. Even at a diminished popularity level, Manny and Floyd remain the biggest names in boxing, and a sequel to their 2015 fight would likely be a PPV draw, despite questions about how much each fighter has left in the tank." -

ListenFirst Fan Growth score measures the total growth of a person's digital audience, meaning new Facebook page Likes, new Instagram followers, new Tumblr followers, new Twitter Followers, and new YouTube channel subscribers. 

COMPARISON

Those Fan Footprint totals, dwarf the totals of star boxers who are currently in their primes. For instance, On December 31, 2019, Canelo Álvarez had a ListenFirst Fan Footprint of 11 million, while Gennady Golovkin had a Fan Footprint of 5.27 million. To find someone who had a Fan Footprint more in the range of Mayweather, you need to look past boxers to MMA stars. On December 31, 2019 the Fan Footprint of Conor McGregor was 48.9 million.

There were only 27.91 percent as many Tweets mentioning Manny Pacquiao in 2019 as there was in 2015 (887,069 compared to 3,178,067). With Floyd Mayweather Jr. there was only 16.66 percent as many Tweets mentioning him in 2019 compared to 2015 (1,055,785 compared to 6,335,869). There's no question that the real-time conversation around both fighters has shrunk in the last five years, however they still outnumber the contemporary names that are driving the sport today.

As the clock keeps ticking, whether a rematch takes place or not, the conversation could continue to go on and on for these two future Hall of Fame fighters as fans are finding it hard to let go.