Having realised his Chinese martial arts dream in a movie, is Jack Ma moving on to boxing?
After having dinner with Philippine boxing legend Manny Pacquiao in China last weekend, the Alibaba co-founder slipped on boxing gloves for a workout.
The 55-year-old Ma showed off some quick jabs in a clip posted on Twitter on Oct 27.
Done with the warmup, Pacquaio then threw down the gauntlet, challenging US boxer Floyd Mayweather to a match.
"Floyd Mayweather, if you want a real fight, fight me."
"If you want an exhibition, my guy, my friend, Jack Ma will take care of you," Pacquaio said.
[embed]https://twitter.com/MannyPacquiao/status/1188458056012595201[/embed]
In a jibe at Mayweather's lifestyle brand The Money Team, the buds dubbed themselves 'the real Manny Team'.
They're not pulling punches there, it seems. "Yeah, I'm ready. Any time, any place," Ma said.
Although he looks to be in good shape and is a longtime tai chi practitioner, it is unclear how the match would turn out if he were to take on Mayweather.
Chinese billionaire Ma first showed off his tai chi moves in Gong Shou Dao (The Art of Attack and Defence), a 2017 short film featuring big names in the Asian martial arts scene such as Jet Li, Sammo Hung, and Donnie Yen.
After Mayweather won the highly anticipated 'Fight of the Century' between the boxing champs in 2015, this could be Pacquiao's attempt to egg the retired US boxer to return to the ring for a rematch.
Even though there were talks of another fight in 2018, they never came to fruition.
Will Mayweather take the bait this time?
[embed]https://www.instagram.com/p/B37HeZQlDYm/[/embed]
lamminlee@asiaone.com