The world keeps waiting for the final verdict regarding the mega fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. There is enough finger pointing to go around and a combination of egos and agendas have made this fight almost impossible to make. There are of course always two sides to every story, but recently Kevin Davis interviewed Floyd Mayweather Jr. regarding Manny Pacquiao, Bob Arum, his career, the boxing media and more.
The five division world champion and current WBC Welterweight Champion opened up about Top Rank CEO, Bob Arum, who was Floyd Mayweather’s promoter for many years before the pound-for-pound king moved on to promoting him self with his team of trusted advisers.
“It?s like this, when I started my career with Bob Arum, I was one of the best fighters, he ever seen.” Floyd said and continued, “Then when I become my own boss, then I became the scum of the earth to Arum, but that’s how he feels, everyone is entitled to their own opinion”
Speaking of peoples opinions, he then brought up some of his recent fights and how feels, “When I fought Marquez, they said he’s over the hill, even though he just beat a fleet of champions. Now he’s thirty-nine and Pacquiao fights him… it’s the greatest thing ever. You look at the Ortiz fight, how did we even get put in that situation? Did I put myself in that situation, where there was going to be controversy? Like I said I’m always in a no-win situation. We just want to give the people good fights, exciting fights.”
That’s Floyd. It seems he’s carrying a chip in his shoulder. It sounds like he just wants respect and feels he doesn’t get a fair shake.
Since he brought up Juan Manuel Marquez, the question whether he’d seen his fight with Pacquio naturally came up. “I was sitting in my hotel room, in Greensboro, NC. I’m turning back and forward and watching football”, he said. You can choose to believe him. But I get the sense that Mayweather was trying to show that he didn’t care much about the fight. But inevitably his former promoter, was brought up again.
“I’m not going to give Bob Arum my money, I will watched it on HBO for free, because I love HBO, that’s my home, but I think it was wrong and this is what’s hurting the sport. With Jim Lampley and other people saying Pacquiao won the fight. He lost” Mayweather said, “It wasn’t even a split decision, he lost unanimously”, he insisted. But Floyd Mayweather Jr. is not alone, most boxing insiders, writers and fans felt Marquez won the fight. He continued, … “but were in a recession, we’re living in an economic world. We’re smart, if Pacquiao lost we’re talking a bout between the two fighters, billions and billions of dollars lost.”
Mayweather, …”You saw the way he fought the other night, that’s not the Pacquiao we’re used to seeing as of late. Off balance, ‘wildish’, very very wild.” As we know Marquez is a counter puncher and his his counter-punching gave Pacquiao alot of trouble in the fight. With Floyd Mayweather being regarded as the best counter-puncher in the game, there seemed to have been a message with that statement.
It was interesting to hear how “Money” May, perhaps by no coincidence, insinuated that money was the root of all evil that night in Las Vegas.
Mayweather, “They have to connect Pacquiao’s name to mine, so he can make major paydays. I’m not here to count another man?s pocket or what he does, on one side they say he’s making twenty-two million, now I’m hearing six million. I don’t really understand this.”
Whether or not Floyd is trying to give Manny Pacquiao career advice, or if he is just randomly wondering these things, while trying to remind us that he makes the most money in the sport is debatable…. who knows? Maybe he could be both concerned for Pacquao and happy that he makes more money than him. You never really know with Floyd Mayweather.
So now, about the fight everyone wants to see. Asked if the Mayweather camp is interested in the fight. “From what I hear, because I’m not saying it’s true or not, but Bob Arum owes Pacquiao a lot of money. No matter who I face, I’m on the A-side of the deal so how can they make me an offer?”
Mayweather, “All my money goes to me. Anytime you mention my name, they?re going to say, all-time great, Pacquiao’s name has to be connected with mine, I’m a crutch for him to lean on. So I don’t know how they’re going to approach it but I can’t really trash talk and have fun, because of the lawsuit”.
We’re not any closer to the fight being made today than we were last year. he was very clear in making his case that he is the A-side of the negotiation table. “… I can’t wait until Todd Duboef is running the company (Top Rank) He and Dena Duboef are truly great people, professional. I can’t wait until he takes over just so we can have dinner and talk about working together. Those rumors in the past about money being offered to me, not true, How can you offer me a deal when I’m the A-side? We make the offers. We tell you what were going to give you, and you can take it or you don’t have to. We’re the A-side.”
He did confirm that May 5th is the date and not February, as was rumored in boxing circles. If it’s not against Manny Pacquiao, it will be against someone else.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. feels strongly about drug testing in the sport of boxing. He insists that the test is for every single one of his opponents not just Pacquiao. Since the Shane Mosley fight every single one of his opponents have had to take the test. Why?
He answered, … “because there is so much cheating going on in the sport, that’s why every man I face will have to take the test. I’m trying to clean up the sport. At one point people in the past speculated on me because they said, ‘how could this guy dominate all these years and make Hall-Of-Fame fighters look like ordinary fighters’. It’s obvious, like I said things are changing in the sport of boxing. The fans and the people around boxing can read in between the lines. Things are changing.” For Floyd Mayweather, there are more than enough double standards to go around. For years, even HBO commentators like Larry Merchant aren’t shy to criticize him over the air. We even witnessed the two have a shouting match during the post fight interview of the Ortiz fight.
Mayweather opened up, “I love HBO and everybody on the staff, we have no problems, if I had problems in the past with them, we call them and they take care of it. They make it right. I just don’t get how they say these trainers are this and that and I’ve beat all the so called best trainers. They give a fighter ‘Fighter of the Decade’, and he (Manny Pacquiao) had a loss and a draw in the decade. When I beat Angel Manfredy, I didn’t take the IBF, when I beat Mosley I didn’t take the WBA, so truthfully, I’m a ten time world champion.”
So with that, he then began to talk about the current WBO World Champion Manny Pacquiao, giving his own version of the Filipino’s biggest accomplishments, …”Marcos Antonio Barrera, the guy had been through so many wars, he didn’t beat the best Barrera. He didn’t beat the best Morales, when he beat Morales he had just came off a lose to Zahir Raheem. When he fought Hatton, I had just knocked him out. He wasn’t there mentally, because he already got to the pinnacle. When he fought Cotto, he just got beat by Antonio Margarito, Then you got Clottey, who I think if he had fought, we could have gotten something out of him, but I think he was just there to get a payday. If he would have fought we never know what could have happened.”
It was very interesting that Floyd Mayweather brought up the Clottey fight. While most, including my self, simply feel Clottey’s style was just going to block punches all night, since Pacquiao brings major volume. But there are many in the boxing world that feel Clottey just showed up for a pay-day. Whether that means he came to lose or just didn’t put the best effort to win, that depends on who you ask. He continued, “Margarito, a guy that was coming off a year and half layoff. Mosley, came off a loss to me.” Still talking in the third person, while throwing shots towards the 8-division World Champion, and criticizing that very accomplishment, he stated, “Floyd Mayweather has never won a title where they made up a belt. I never fought for a vacant title. Floyd Mayweather has never beat a fighter at a catch-weight… All I say is this, you put them in front of me and I beat them.”
As we know there has always been criticism toward Manny Pacquiao in regards to his accomplishment of winning titles in eight weight divisions, due to catch weight clauses at both welterweight and super-welterweight. The diamond belt was also made up by the WBC for Manny Pacquaio. In the Miguel Cotto fight there was a catch weight clause of 145, two pounds below the welterweight limit. In the Margarito fight, it was for a vacant 154-pound title which again was fought at another catch weight (150 LBS). “Money” May likes to talk about all the money that he makes. It’s not something he hides, he’s proud of it. “I’m still making money off the Hatton fight and the De La Hoya fight. So I still got checks coming in. What can I say, I got a great team.”
But there is a side to Floyd that is rarely shown on articles. Behind the brash character who isn’t shy about giving his opinions is a caring side. “The hoilday season is here and Thanksgiving is days away, the Floyd Mayweather Foundation will continue to help those in need this year.” he said. “I know we’ve been kind of moving around, it’s a last minute thing because I’ve been traveling but normally on Thanksgiving and Christmas we give out turkeys and toys, but we are going to do it, for our American citizens that are less fortunate” Another thing not mentioned in the interview was paying for the funerals of both Genaro Hernandez and former Heavyweight Champion of the World, Joe Frazier. However, we live in a world that has a thirst for the negative and controversy. Obviously Floyd Mayweather Jr. knows of the world we live in and he has used it to his advantage in shows like 24/7 and interviews like these to promote his name. But behind that guy who flashes cash and talks in the third person is a good heart. You can’t say it hasn’t worked. Love him or hate him, the whole world is watching his next fight.
