Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather in negotiations for £180m fight in 2015

Pacquiao and Mayweather came close to agreeing a bout in 2010, but it fell through due to Mayweather's demands for Pacquiao to submit to "Olympic-style" blood testing in training.

At the start of the year, Pacquiao urged Mayweather to agree to a fight for the sake of boxing fans, saying: "Floyd, if you’re a real man, fight me. Let’s do it for the love of boxing and for the fans. Let’s do it not for the sake of money. Let’s make the boxing fans happy.”

Now as he promotes his fight with Chris Algieri, scheduled for November, Pacquiao has announced that the Mayweather bout may be back on.

"There are serious negotiations with the Mayweather camp and my promoter," he said, adding that it would be "probably for next year."

Pacquiao's promoter Bob Arum had earlier expressed his hope that there could be two Pacquiao-Mayweather fights in 2015, televised across two US TV networks, HBO and Showtime, who have three fights left on their six-fight deal with Mayweather.

"Both [TV] networks want this to happen," Arum said. "All signs seem to point to a first fight early next year.

"A second fight in the autumn would provide a different cash split because the winner of the first would claim the higher percentage. As each of them believes he would win, that provides an extra incentive."