Manny Pacquiao: Floyd Mayweather needs me -- Examiner

By Michael Marley, Examiner.com

Manny Pacquiao has two fairly distinct contituencies.

One are the voters of Sarangani Province who sent him to Congress.

The other is the Pacquiao Worldwide Army (PWA), as I like to call them who follow his ring exploits and never seem to tire of news about his daily doings.

Pacquiao said Wednesday in New York that it's boxing fans everywhere who will be the real losers if he and undefeated American superstar Floyd Mayweather never cross gloves.

Pacquiao also said, and this was confirmed by trainer Freddie Roach, that they agreed to prefight drug testing without limitation hoping to make the so called Super Bout.

It's generally been thought that Pacman demanded a cutoff date for prefight testing at 14 days.

"I agreed to take a test anytime, any day," Pacquiao said as he sat beside Roach at Chelsea Piers in midtown Manhattan on a scorching hot (96 degrees) afternoon.

"For me, I am satsified with my boxing achievements. I don't need Mayweather now, he needs me. It's the fans who suffer," Pacquiao said.

"I don't know what happened but it was my decision on testing. I agreed to this so that I could see, so that I could really know what is the reason, really, that he won't fight me."

I asked Pacman if he thought it was "crazy" that Mayweather would not want to earn a reported $40 to $50 million in the big bout.

"I really don't know what is his reason," Pacquiao said. "It is really hard to say, I don't know."

Does Pacquiao think Mayweather is afraid to risk his precious, no loss record?

"Again, it's hard to say why but maybe that is his reason."

For his part, Roach said he thought the second try at making the fight was going to work.

"I got calls about details," Roach said. "I got calls about the gloves, about the size of the ring and we were fine with the 147 pound weight.

"It's definitely a shame for boxing. It's this kind of thing that helps boost mixed martial arts over boxing.

"I wanted that fight, I wanted Manny to fight Mayweather. I really thought at one point the fight was a shoe in although I knew Floyd would never fight us in Dallas."

"I still hope it happens," Roach said. "I was just in the Ukraine and first question I get is, when will Pacquiao fight Mayweather. I think people are getting pissed off that they're not fighting.

"Maybe we will have to wait until Mayweather goes broke again. Maybe then he'll want the fight."

(mlcmarley@aol.com)

Source: examiner.com