MANNY PACQUIAO slammed Floyd Mayweather?s exhibition bout against Tenshin Nasukawa branding it ?bad for boxing?.
Last month Mayweather, 41, boxed Japanese featherweight kickboxer Nasukawa, 20, in an exhibition bout that lasted just one round as the American floored the boxing debutant three times.
Although the bout was an exhibition, and will not go on either fighters professional records, Mayweather still walked away with $9million.
One man who was not impressed with Mayweather crushing the boxing novice was Pacquiao, 40, who defends his WBA ?regular? welterweight title against Adrien Broner, 29, on January 19.
Pacquiao said: “I won’t do that. If I’m Floyd I wouldn’t do that.
“Exhibition match where you just knock him out. That’s not good for the fans.”
In May 2015 Mayweather outpointed Pacquiao in a fight that was five years in the making and sold a record 4.6m pay-per-views.
Pacquiao claimed after the fight he had torn his left rotator cuff in training, and he was unable to fight to the best of his ability.
The Filipino six-weight world champion has vied for a rematch ever since, though he claims all his attention is currently on beating Mayweather’s former close friend Broner.
Pacquiao added: “I’m not thinking about Floyd Mayweather, my plan is one [fight] at a time. I’m not planning for future plans.”
Although Pacquiao is focussing on Broner, his long time trainer, Freddie Roach, has made it no secret he would like his pupil to have one more crack at Mayweather.
The trainer told FightHype that Mayweather only took the exhibition bout in Japan as a means to stay relevant, possibility to build up to a rematch with Pacman.
Roach said: ?Floyd put himself on TV for a reason. He wants people to still know that he?s still fighting, that he?s still in action.
?He won by knockout. He fought a smaller person. He?s in the limelight again. For this fight or any future fight to happen things like that have to happen.
?The winner of this fight (Pacquiao vs Broner) may get him. We hope so ? but we don?t know yet. We can only concentrate on one fight at a time.
?I?d like to see Mayweather (next for Pacquiao). I want that one more time.?
