Pound-for pound king pretender Floyd Mayweather spewed interesting notes in an exclusive interview with Sky Sport’s Adam Smith just hours after the scintillating victory of his rival Manny Pacquiao over tough Miguel Cotto.
While Pacquiao’s camp has remained relatively silent on this issue, some boxing scribes, however, have got plenty of things to say. Check this out.
Ali Sakoor (411mania.com)
Mayweather is scared, because he's already making up excuses to avoid the fight, such as Manny getting KO'd as a teenager and 20 year old. How many of you know that a young Bernard Hopkins lost to some guy named Clinton Mitchell? Do you care? I didn't think so. Marvin Hagler had early career losses to Willie Monroe and Bobby "Boogaloo" Watts. Who gives a crap. Any fool can see that Manny in no way resembles the unpolished, weight drained, young man from over 30 pounds and ten years ago. There's also no shame in Manny losing a decision to future hall-of-famer Erik Morales at a much lower weight; particularly after knockout victories in two rematches.
Manny did much better against Oscar and Hatton than Floyd did. He was also able to knock JMM to the deck 4 times in two fights, despite having outgrown 130. Floyd could only muster a second round flash knockdown, of a slow and chubby JMM, in their welterweight mismatch. Floyd won't be able to hurt Manny, but Manny would hit Floyd harder, and more often than he has ever been cracked in his entire career. I can see Floyd avoiding this fight, because he's scared to have an L on his record. He's too stupid and arrogant to understand that most every great fighter has more than one loss, and that doesn't diminish from greatness. What fades perceptions of greatness, is the failure to challenge one's self against the very best.
Frank Lotierzo (The Sweet Science)
Floyd Mayweather's seven paragraph statement released late Monday night borders on being hysterical and a bad joke at the same time.
This is typical scripted Mayweather. He knows now more than ever before that his only role in a potential fight with Pacquiao is to don the black hat and incite boxing fans and play the bad guy. That's Floyd's best suit and it's obvious that Pacquiao's showing versus Cotto has infuriated him and made him envious.
As Mayweather watched Pacquiao-Cotto Saturday night he had one thought going through his mind and it wasn't "I could never beat Pacquiao." No, it was more on the line that as sure as he was that he'd beat Cotto, he knows he never could've taken him apart as decisively as Pacquiao did. Not once in ten fights even if he dragged Cotto down to 144. And that's obviously eating at him based on his ridiculous press release.
Inside Mayweather is frustrated that as great as he looked versus Juan Manuel Marquez in September, Pacquiao's showing versus Cotto makes his seem like a six week old ghost. It seems no matter what Mayweather says or does he's upstaged by Pacquiao's showing in the ring versus an opponent he had more trouble with, or just so happened not to get in the ring with.
Chris Iorfida (CBA)
And finally, Mayweather Jr. is flapping his gums. Floyd said in a statement a couple days after Pacquiao-Cotto that Manny would be "easy work".
He also demonstrated his propensity for preposterousness on a couple of fronts. First, he engaged in a long-winded criticism on how Manny has never explicitly said he wants to fight Mayweather, a useless bit of semantics. Second, he said the Pacquiao fight was a no-win proposition because the Filipino is the smaller man and has already been beaten three times.
Such is the world that Mayweather inhabits, where an unbeaten mark rules above all else, even if the path to it has only periodically involved fighting the toughest foes. By Mayweather's logic, we should have stopped paying attention to Bernard Hopkins after 1994, as he was an exposed fighter with two losses on his ledger.
Steve Kim (SecondsOut.com)
Perhaps Mayweather is forgetting some of his own comments he made at his post-fight presser after he downed Marquez, or some of his contradictory answers he gave to ’RA the Rugged Man’ or the fact that Pacquiao has really never called anyone out.
Scott Heritage (Examiner.com)
If Floyd insists on waging a war of words against every prospective opponent, and he does, then he will find Pacquiao frustratingly mute. All the while Manny can sit back and let his own popularity grow as Floyd infuriates himself and finds less and less people on his side the more he talks.
SC (Bad Left Hook)
Mayweather sounds like a child being forced to do something because punishment will be forthcoming should he not. "Fine, mom, I'll take out the trash, but then you're just going to say, 'Hey, clean your bedroom!' When am I gonna get a break around here?!"
And for the Alliance of Boxing Fans Who Need to Protect Floyd Mayweather, let's just get it all out of the way first: I'm a hater, I only want to see him lose, I'll be so happy if he loses, I'm a hater, I'm a hater, I'm a hater. We've heard it all before.
Boxing fans have spent 15 solid years or so bitching about boxing not being what it used to be. Record-protecting stars like Mayweather are a big reason that's the case. So which is it? Does Floyd have nothing left to prove and should we all accept his mediocre opponent selection because he's so talented and rich and the rest of us must be jealous, or do you want to see the biggest and most important fight in at least two decades?
Mayweather's act is tired. He has to take this fight. If he wins -- and as I've said already, I think these are the only two fighters that can beat each other -- then heap the praise. I know I will. What Mayweather and some of his quick-to-defend fans fail to accept is that we all want to cherish Floyd in his active career, or at least I think most of us do. He's an amazing athlete and like Pacquiao, does things no one else in boxing can do. They've got different skill sets, and both of them are the peak of those skills. But Pacquiao has gone out and taken challenge after challenge after challenge, and has fought his way into the hearts and minds of not just his home country, but boxing fans all over the world. Pacquiao has helped boxing grow, a throwback who came from nowhere to become one of the biggest stars in sports. Mayweather is also a huge star, but he has been protecting his "0" like a mama bear for years now.
There's nothing about Mayweather in the ring I dislike. I think he's a joy to watch perform. He's so talented. But against who anymore? You know why Floyd thinks he always hears, "Well you should have won, so what's next?" Because since the Castillo rematch in 2002, every fight he's taken has been a no-brainer, except maybe Oscar since he moved up so high in weight. Mayweather-Judah was going to be a really interesting fight, until Judah crumbled three months beforehand against Carlos Baldomir of all the damn people.
There has been no one on his record that people thought could really beat him. You might say, "Well, that's because he's so good," and yes, he is so good, but that's not the whole reason. A big part of it has been the fact that he took on the likes of Henry Bruseles and Arturo Gatti, Sharmba Mitchell and the deadly slow Baldomir. There were better challenges out there. They didn't happen. And it wasn't just one thing that didn't happen, it has been several. There's a pattern. What's the constant? It's Floyd.
Glenn Wilson (Examiner.com)
First, this is what fighters do. Especially Mayweather. He believes that nobody really wants to fight him, even though he has a history of avoiding fighters that have called him out.
Second, he is criticizing Pacquiao for something that he himself has been guilty of. Floyd, as do most fighters, refuses to call out fighters immediately after a fight. His most common response to these type of questions is that him and his team will sit down and discuss which fight is best. That is his prerogative, and he should grant the same opportunity to Pacquiao.
Finally, he has to remember that he is dealing with Manny Pacquiao. Pacquiao is a breath of fresh air, not just to boxing, but to sports in general. He is a 1950's, 3 minute a round fighter with humility. Unlike a lot of today's fighters, Manny would rather fight, not tell people how great he is.
Remember the old saying Floyd, it is like the pot calling the kettle black.
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