Saturday, December 13, 2014
Floyd: Pacquiao's ducking the fight, not me
MANILA, Philippines – Floyd Mayweather Jr. claimed that it is Manny Pacquiao who is avoiding the super fight, contrary to what many fight fans believe.
The controversial boxer accused Pacquiao and his promoter, Bob Arum, of fooling the public into believing that Mayweather is dodging the Filipino superstar.
“Manny Pacquiao, Bob Arum, you guys have been ducking us for years," Mayweather said in an interview with Showtime’s Steven Farhood. "We're tired of you guys fooling the public, fooling the critics.”
“Money Mayweather” said his camp already made efforts to arrange the fight, which is expected to become the most lucrative bout in recent history.
He, however, claimed that Pacquiao’s refusal to accept his conditions has scuttled the mega bout.
“You guys didn't want to take random blood and urine testing, so that's why it didn't happen. Then I offered you $40 million, then you didn't want to make the fight happen,” said Mayweather.
Mayweather said he’s now willing to step into the ring with the eight division champion and mentioned May 2 as their fight date.
But the undefeated American said that there is no way that Pacquiao is getting the $40 million guarantee he earlier offered.
“You lost twice, now you coming back begging for the same money. That's not gonna happen,” he said.
Mayweather also cited that Pacquiao’s pay-per-view numbers has been sliding as of late, alluding that he is the bigger draw compared to the Filipino boxer.
It was the first time Mayweather made a statement regarding the super fight since Pacquiao called him out last month.
Boxing analyst Dan Rafael, meanwhile, said Mayweather failed to admit several facts during his interview with Showtime.
In his report to ESPN.com, Rafael pointed that Pacquiao has long accepted Mayweather’s drug testing demand.
The analyst also said that Pacquiao wasn’t the only boxer who suffered a slide in pay-per-view hits.
“Mayweather failed to mention that Pacquiao long ago agreed to be randomly tested. He also failed to mention that while Pacquiao's pay-per-view figures have indeed been soft in recent fights, Mayweather's have also plummeted,” he said.
“Three of the four fights that he has had so far under his six-fight contract with CBS/Showtime failed to reach even 900,000 buys.”
source: www.abs-cbnnews.com