Testing for performance-enhancing drugs ‘is what I want,’ the boxer says. There are signs his camp and Manny Pacquiao’s are closer to accord on a testing protocol.
Reporting from Las Vegas? The most problematic issue preventing a Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao super-fight has been Mayweather’s insistence that both submit to random, Olympic-style blood tests for performance-enhancing drugs.
Mayweather doesn’t want to budge from this position because, from his perspective, it’s just an extension of the principles he’s based his boxing career on: Stay out of harm’s way, make a lot of money.
The 34-year-old Mayweather (41-0, 25 knockouts) has long said there’s no glory in taking punishment to the head in the boxing ring, and he’s established a legacy as one of the greatest defensive fighters in the sport’s history.
“I don’t care how much money is negotiated,” Mayweather said at his Las Vegas gym as he trains for his Sept. 17 fight against WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz at the MGM Grand. “This [performance-enhancing drug testing] is what I want. Look at how these guys end up punch-drunk in this sport.
“I’m sorry, but all of a sudden a guy [Pacquiao] at age 25 becomes a great fighter? I want to be on a level playing field with this guy. We’re fighting at the highest level, talking about the biggest fight ever. You should have the greatest testing too,” Mayweather said.
Pacquiao, 32, will next fight Nov. 12 against Juan Manuel Marquez.
Mayweather stepped over a line in his suspicion of Pacquiao, declaring last year in a video that he believes the Filipino fighter has used “power pellets” to win previous fights. Pacquiao is suing Mayweather in federal court in Nevada for defamation, and Mayweather is overdue to give a deposition in the case.
