MANILA, Philippines ? Mike Tyson is picking Floyd Mayweather as winner in the event the megabuck match with Manny Pacquiao becomes a reality.
?I have to go with Floyd,? Tyson told Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times in a Q&A that appeared on the paper?s Sunday issue.
Mayweather, he said, ?should be a 2-1 or 3-1 favorite.?
Asked why the fight has not taken place, Tyson, one the most controversial boxing champions in history, said that if Pacquiao and Mayweather were real men, they should go and fight each other.
He was then asked if he would like to mediate to make the fight happen.
“If you need one man to get two men in the ring and fight each other, they’re not men. They should want to fight each other. I don’t know if they will fight, or why they won’t. I’m not in their heads. There may be a financial strategy at play, some kind of rights we’re not thinking about.”
He said that one other reason is that Mayweather or Pacquiao is afraid to lose.
“Some guys are afraid to lose, and they think once they lose there’s nothing left. That zero is their security blanket.?
Talking about himself, Tyson said: ?I was just out there wanting to be the best. I thought of myself as the best fighter God ever created. No man was ever going to step into that ring and beat me. I can’t relate. It’s out of the question. We’re from different eras.?
?Some of these guys today are business oriented. When I fought, we didn’t care if we had no money left afterward. All we really wanted was to have enough left to open a bar like the guys before us did, and a lot of those guys were deadbeats or ended up in insane asylums. That was the glamorous road I wanted to follow.”
Even though both fighters are booked to face separate foes on May 5 (Mayweather vs Miguel Cotto) and June 9 (Pacquiao vs Tim Bradley), ringsiders can?t help but drool over the prospects of seeing the two claimants to the mythical title of pound-for-pound king squaring off down the road.
Oddsmakers have installed Mayweather as a 2-1 favorite on the strength of his knockout win over Victor Ortiz last September and Pacquiao?s unimpressive majority decision victory over Mexican nemesis Juan Manuel Marquez last November.
On his twitter account Tuesday, Mayweather boasted that ?there is no blueprint on how to beat me? as he revs up for Cotto.
Assuming Mayweather and Pacquiao get past their next assignments, there will be pressure again to make the dream fight considering the money involved and the revenue that will be generated by the event.
It is no surprise that Tyson has expressed the belief that Mayweather is going to beat Pacquiao even though the disgraced former undisputed world heavyweight champion once showed up during the final day of Pacquiao?s training in Las Vegas lending a helping hand.
Tyson showed up at the IBA Gym in Las Vegas when Pacquiao was about to wrap up his preparation for his landmark win over Oscar De La Hoya and went home with a wide grin.
Pacquiao gave out a few premium tickets to Tyson so he could watch the fight, according to trainer Freddie Roach, who had also trained Tyson during the tailend of the slugger?s legendary career.
To make the dream fight with Mayweather a reality, Pacquiao said he’s willing to lower his purse.
