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Mayweather rules out Pacquiao fight, mocks him in South Africa

Rappler.com

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Boxing fans may want to see the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight, but Mayweather says he doesn't need to fight Pacquiao for his fights to produce a lot of money.

MANILA, Philippines – Both Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. have two fight dates scheduled for 2014. Just don’t count on the next one being against each other.

The five-division champion Mayweather, who is in Johannesburg, South Africa on the first stop of a four city tour through the African continent, shot down questions about a potential fight with Manny Pacquiao at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon (Thursday in the Philippines).

Seated next to South Africa’s Minister of Sport and Recreation Fikile Mbala while wearing a TMT (The Money Team) hat, Mayweather (45-0, 26 knockouts) said he didn’t need to fight Pacquiao because his recent fights have been high-grossing events.

“As far as my last fight with … I can’t even remember the guy’s name,” said Mayweather, before recalling the nickname of Saul Alvarez. “Canelo! They all the same to me. So, as far as my fight with Canelo, they said Floyd Mayweather’s record could never be broken without the Pacquiao fight and as you have seen what we did, the fight done crazy numbers.”

According to Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports, Mayweather’s fight with the relative upstart Alvarez on September 14 of last year sold 2.2 million pay-per-views, which was second only in sales to Mayweather’s 2007 fight with Oscar de la Hoya, which sold 2.5 million. Mayweather made a reported $41.5 million in guaranteed purse, not counting pay-per-view incentives.

MONEY HUNGRY. Floyd Mayweather Jr. says he doesn't need to fight Manny Pacquiao because he makes a lot of money fighting other fighters. Photo by Justin Lane/EPA

Mayweather said that he believes Pacquiao’s tax situation, where he reportedly owes a total of $68 million in the Philippines and United States, plays a role in Pacquiao’s desire to fight him.

“I offered Manny Pacquiao the fight before. We didn’t see eye to eye on terms, as far as with random blood and urine testing,” said Mayweather. “Years later, we come back and I try and make the fight happen again. I offer him $40 million. He said he wanted 50-50. So we didn’t make the fight happen.

“Manny Pacquiao all of a sudden, he loses to Timothy Bradley, he loses to Marquez. He has tax problems now. So, two losses and tax problems later, now he all of a sudden want to say, ‘You know what? I’d do anything to make the fight happen,’ when he’s really saying, ‘Floyd, can you help me solve my tax problems, get me out of debt?'”

Following the two losses in 2012, Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KOs) has since beaten former lightweight titleholder Brandon Rios in November by decision. Pacquiao is scheduled for an April 12 date against either Bradley or WBO junior welterweight titleholder Ruslan Provodnikov.

Mayweather has stated on a number of occasions that he would not deal with Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank because of their own acrimonious relationship following a split from Top Rank nearly a decade ago.

Pacquiao has since refuted claims that Arum was getting in the way of a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight, saying that Arum had given him permission to negotiate directly with Mayweather but that he and Mayweather never had any communication. Pacquiao said he felt Mayweather was a “coward” for not accepting the fight.

Mayweather made no mention of any personal issues with Arum, but stated that working with Arum would entail cutting the Las Vegas-based promoter in financially.

“He’s with Bob Arum, which is his promoter, and I’m under my own banner, which is Mayweather Promotions. So if I’m keeping 100 percent of the revenue, there’s no way I can go split 30 percent, 20 percent, not even 10 percent if I’m keeping 100 percent of the money. Why would I go anywhere and split the money?”

Mayweather stated that his next opponent would be announced in the “next seven days,” mentioning only former junior welterweight titleholder Amir Khan and current WBA welterweight titleholder Marcos Maidana as candidates.

Khan (28-3, 19 KOs) of England is a former training partner of Pacquiao and has won two straight against modest opposition since losing consecutive fights in 2011 and 2012. Maidana (35-3, 31 KOs) of Argentina is coming off an upset victory over highly-regarded titleholder Adrien Broner.

“We don’t know who it is at this particular time but hopefully it’s somebody very exciting so we can continue to give you guys nothing but excitement,” said Mayweather. – Rappler.com

 

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