Boxing superstar Floyd Mayweather (47-0, 26 KOs) has finally made a public statement about a potential fight with Manny Pacquiao, announcing in an interview on Friday night's Showtime boxing telecast that he would like the fight to occur on May 2, 2015.
“Let's make this fight for the people, for the fans," said Mayweather. "Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao May 2, Cinco de Mayweather."
Since Pacquiao destroyed Chris Algieri last month in Macau, his camp has issued multiple statements about wanting a fight with the pound-for-pound king. On the other hand, Mayweather and his team have been publicly silent, until Friday's interview.
Mayweather, a showman at heart, was promoting the Erislandy Lara-Ishe Smith card in San Antonio, and was perhaps waiting for the right opportunity to announce his plans on a big stage.
Mayweather also put forth his perspective on why the fight has not yet occurred.
"I would love to fight Manny Pacquiao, we're trying to make the fight happen," said Mayweather. "Years ago we had problems with random blood and urine testing. I just want to have an even playing field. It's a little bit of everything that makes me want this fight because he's not on my level. The fans would love to see the fight and of course I want to go out with a bang. So let's make this fight happen.”
In truth, both fighters have been at fault for failing to make the fight happen.
Pacquiao's alleged fear of needles and his refusal to be tested close to fight night was an absolute joke and cheated the fans. He now has no opposition to such testing.
Since that debacle, Mayweather's hypocrisy and affirmative efforts to sabotage the fight have been even worse.
Mayweather allegedly offered Pacquiao a $40 million guaranteed purse that included no revenue from PPV buys. The offer was absurd, considering that Mayweather's final earnings would likely be double the $40 million figure, and that Pacquiao was the much bigger draw at the time.
In essence, Mayweather deliberately priced himself out of the fight with a completely unreasonable and insulting demand.
In subsequent fights, Mayweather has always paid lip service to wanting to please the fans, but that too has been laughable.
Was a rematch with Marcos Maidana something the fans wanted to see more than a Pacquiao fight? Not a chance. How about a fight with Robert Guerrero? Or Victor Ortiz? Or the first Maidana fight? No, no, and no.
Perhaps Floyd's sycophants believed such propaganda in his post fight interviews, but the public never did.
Even the drug testing demand, a seemingly noble gesture on Floyd's part, became suspect.
Despite talk of wanting to "clean up the sport," Floyd has not discussed the subject much other than when talk of a Pacquiao fight arises. We did see him employ such testing when he fought Shane Mosley (who was linked with the BALCO scandal), but Mayweather has never been front and center on the issue like other fighters.
His notion of fighting clean has been using USADA-style testing, which everyone knows is far weaker than the VADA guidelines anyone truly concerned with clean fights would want to impose.
Mayweather's verbal claims that Pacquiao juiced ended up with Mayweather getting sued by Pacquiao. However, rather than back up his talk and defend himself, Floyd ran repeatedly from depositions and rushed to settle the case.
Mayweather then noted Pacquaio's drop in knockout wins since coach Alex Ariza left camp, but hypocritcally had Ariza lingering around his own camp prior to a recent fight.
On the surface, it seems that Pacquiao's power -- a power he carried through multiple weight classes, unlike Mayweather -- scared Floyd to the point that he assumed Pacquiao must be juicing. Otherwise, why would he make such a public demand above and beyond normal state boxing testing protocols?
In other words, from Mayweather's skepticism of Pacquiao's power, one can logically infer that he did at one time fear Pacquiao's power so much that he assumed it could not be naturally derived.
Nevertheless, after all the drama and background, it appears the fight could happen. Both men publicly say they want it. Mayweather has extra incentive to secure a big name on May 2 so that Canelo Alvarez and Miguel Cotto do not try to take over that signature date for boxing events.
Moreover, the fight is still relevant. Although both men have visibly declined, they still remain elite fighters at the top of the sport.
Let's just hope nobody prices the other out of the fight again.
By Mike Elliott
Editor for TheDailySportsHerald.com
Floyd will ask for 90/10 then blame Manny for not making fight. Btw, Floyd tested dirty 3 times but USADA withheld the B sample. Al Haymon has USADA in his pockets! Journalist Gabriel Montoya tried to expose this corruption and got blackballed by Golden Boy
ReplyDelete