Floyd Mayweather Jr. made an extraordinary misstep this weekend when he downgraded the stakes of September's long-awaited Manny Pacquiao rematch by claiming the Netflix-bound do-over is actually an exhibition, and not a fully-sanctioned fight after all.

It contradicts much of what Netflix said in a February announcement to unveil its latest spectacle — a follow-up to the best-selling boxing bout of all time, which was set to head for the Sphere in Las Vegas on Sept. 19, available globally to the platform's 325 million subscribers.

Netflix, in a statement sent to Uncrowned at the time, called it a "once-in-a-generation event" with "Mayweather officially coming out of retirement" for a "professional rematch."

The wording couldn’t have been clearer.

The only problem is, one month later, neither could Mayweather.

"As of right now, we do not know where the fight is going to be,” Mayweather told Vegas Sports Today. “The Sphere is one of the places that they talked about. We do not know if it's 100% going to be there.”

While there is no hold for that date or venue on the Nevada Athletic Commission’s calendar, Mayweather’s comment is already a PR headache, and Netflix did not immediately respond Monday to Uncrowned’s request for comment.

But Mayweather didn’t stop there.

“This isn't actually a fight,” he said. “It's an exhibition.”

And with that one word, Mayweather landed a knockdown blow on whatever fan interest MP Promotions, and indeed Netflix, have already generated for this event.

Few fight fans will want to see something that could be so big when it suddenly means so little.

And they’ve already told Mayweather as much.

At an exhibition against British reality show star and MMA veteran Aaron Chalmers in 2023, London's O2 Arena was described as a "ghost town" as the contest played out in a mostly empty arena, with thousands of unsold tickets, and last-minute price reductions to £5 ($ 6.60) failing to even tempt bargain hunters.

Mayweather, 49, deemed a “laughing stock” in the English press at the time, then blamed stingy Brits for failing to buy tickets when Americans “don’t mind spending money.”

Yet if Mayweather vs. Pacquiao is downgraded to exhibition status, then it will likely be another catastrophe at the gate.

And that’s the last thing one needs for a venue that, to borrow a phrase from Rolling Stone journalist Matt Taibbi, has turned into a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of sports and entertainment, which jams its blood funnel into Riyadh Season, or any other sponsor who can offset exorbitant production costs — more than $ 20 million, UFC boss Dana White told Uncrowned, ahead of his Noche UFC show there in 2024.

To make a substantial return at a venue like the Sphere, you need legacy on the line rather than glorified sparring.

Pacquiao, 47, was robbed of a world title win in his valiant attempt to dethrone Mario Barrios and further his own legacy last year, removing leverage he could've used as the oldest welterweight world champion in history to lure Mayweather into a fully-sanctioned fist-fight.

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Floyd’s undefeated 50-0 record remains a stake worth fighting for, and it’s arguably more meaningful to Mayweather than any belt.

Remove that, and one removes the interest from September's quadragenarian rematch, even if Mayweather still intends to “do it again” with Pacquiao “and hopefully entertain the people.”

But the people have already spoken. Mayweather’s exhibition run over the past several years has delivered only mixed results at a time in which Netflix only wants surefire hits.

Jas Mathur, the CEO of MP Promotions, seemingly expects Mayweather to honor the apparent terms he committed to. “Men lie, women lie, executed binding agreements don’t,” he said, via ES News.

It is also not lost on this columnist that, when first speaking with people involved with Mayweather and Pacquiao, one source who worked frequently with Floyd told us straight-up that he’d lose to Manny.

Pacquiao, this source said, had fought five times since Mayweather last boxed as a pro, and had shown he was able to compete effectively with an athlete significantly younger than him in Barrios, 30.

Mayweather would lose to Pacquiao in his current form, the source said. And it wouldn’t be close.

There are few long-term boxing lifers left in Mayweather's current entourage, as he has already divorced from his career-long confidante Leonard Ellerbe, is suing his former broadcaster Showtime Sports and Stephen Espinoza, and even name-checked business partner Al Haymon for allegedly engaging in a fraudulent scheme to hide $ 340 million in earnings from him.

And so it’s unclear who in his inner circle today remains from the core who helped him achieve all he did in the sport in the first place.

But if there were some from those days who are still close to him, maybe they’d say something similar, and maybe that’s why Mayweather is now having second thoughts about putting his coveted 50-0 record on the line in what others, who have been close to him, have said is a losing battle from the off.

Mayweather said he’d been “sitting at home,” thinking: “Why not go out and have a little fun” in the ring?

But he’s already found out once, from the Brits, that it’s nowhere near as fun for the people watching.

Against Pacquiao, the only way it can be is if he risks his 0.