By David Mayo, The Grand Rapids Press
As Floyd Mayweather squeezes in his last pre-training-camp shots at normal life during NBA all-star festivities in Dallas, he allowed for some postmortem parting shots at Manny Pacquiao.
Mayweather is right where he expected to be this spring, on the verge of the biggest fight in boxing, although not against Pacquiao. His May 1 showdown against Shane Mosley is the most anticipated event on the sport’s docket, since the most anticipated theoretical one fell apart on a single negotiating point -- drug testing.
In an exclusive interview in the wee hours of Saturday morning, Mayweather made a few things clear about the welterweight showdown that wasn’t, and the one that is.
The Grand Rapids native is excited about a fight more than a decade in the making.
“Shane Mosley is going down in the Hall of Fame,” Mayweather said. “I truly believe that. And I’m proud to say I want to face the best guys. I want to face Hall of Famers. Why not? Those are extras for me. I can hold my head high and say, ‘This is what I’ve done.’”
And to Mosley saying his speed and power can solve the 40-0 riddle, Mayweather offered a yawning response.
“Everybody always says they have a remedy,” he said. “Everybody always says, ‘Oh, I hit hard, I’m fast, I’m strong.’ I only have one thing to say -- they’re not as smart as me.”
There will be ample opportunity to discuss Mayweather-Mosley, which trumped Pacquiao’s March 13 bout against Joshua Clottey.
Until then, the question remains what the future holds for Mayweather-Pacquiao.
And this may be the answer: Even sterner testing than Mayweather agreed to before talks failed, and revamped purses if Pacquiao-Clottey pay-per-view numbers fall well short of Mayweather-Mosley numbers.
Mayweather’s last offer on a fight negotiated to a 50-50 split -- with $25 million each, plus pay-per-view percentages -- was a 14-day window before the fight with no blood testing.
“I gave him a chance, up to 14 days out. But my new terms are all the way up to the fight. They can come get us whenever, all the way up to the fight, random drug test. That’s what it is,” Mayweather said.
And if, as expected, Mayweather-Mosley greatly outperforms Pacquiao-Clottey, 50-50 is history.
“Instead of 20 or 25 (million dollars), he may have to drop to 15, or 17,” Mayweather said. “And you know me, they may have to throw that extra five or 10 on mine, and we can rock and roll. Take it or leave it.”
Mayweather’s emphasis on Olympic-style drug testing was lambasted by those who saw it as dodging Pacquiao.
“What the world was trying to see was the abnormal,” he said. “But the thing is this: I’ve never seen a guy who didn’t want to take a $25 million drug test. If you’re clean, take the drug test.
“In my clause, he told me that if you weigh over 147, I had to pay him $10 million for each pound. I agreed. But he didn’t agree to my terms. And we both would’ve had to take tests. It wasn’t just steered toward him. It was both me and him.”
Pacquiao subsequently sued Mayweather, and others, alleging defamation.
“He can file a lawsuit,” Mayweather said. “I never came out on record and said that he was on nothing. All I’m saying is why don’t you want to take a $25 million drug test?”
Mayweather said he is “absolutely proud” of his stance for random blood and urine testing for all future fights, to which Mosley agreed.
“If it was all about money for me, I would’ve said ‘I don’t care what Manny Pacquiao does, just give me the money, I’ll take it,’ ” he said. “But it’s me taking a stand for something that means something. And it’s for the fighters who are up and coming.
“It’s sort of the same stance Martin Luther King and Malcolm X made, so we could have freedoms, so everybody could tell the world that we’re equal. The only thing I’m saying is that we are equal. So if you’re not on nothing and I’m not on nothing, then let’s go take the test. That’s all I’m saying."
E-mail David Mayo at dmayo@grpress.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/David_Mayo
Source: mlive.com
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