But Manny usually gives his heart-felt thoughts when asked, so perhaps it isn't a big shock that he came right out and said what he felt about the possibility of Floyd Mayweather fighting him. To sum up, he doesn't think Money will face him.
Said Manny to Greg Beachem of the Associated Press:
"Boxing for him is like a business. He doesn't care about the people around him watching. He doesn't care if the fight is boring, as long as the fight is finished and he gets (plenty of) money."
Honest, no? Also perhaps not the best way to get Mayweather to fight him, unless Pacquiao is trying to use some reverse psychology.
Even with the disclaimer that I'm a big Pacquiao fan (like the other BoxingWatchers, I'm part Filipino), it's hard to find too much fault with that quote. For all his brilliance inside the ring, Floyd isn't about challenging himself as much as he's about having things set up in his favor.
He's also about the money, obviously, and therein lies the interesting part when it comes to a potential bout with Pacquiao, who undoubtedly would make Mayweather more dough than anyone else out there. If Pac Man gets by Miguel Cotto in a few weeks and Floyd decides not to make a fight with him, it can pretty much only be because he feels like it's not worth the risk.
Mayweather may very well feel like he doesn't need Pacquiao to have a decent payday in 2010 after doing over 1 million pay-per-view buys against Juan Manuel Marquez, who isn't known as a huge draw. The ball really is in his court. He can make the fight that would give the fans what they want, create a ton of buzz for the sport and silence all but his most ardent critics - and by the way, would add the most to his bottom line.
Or Mayweather could do what he often does and play it a little bit safer. Lots of us were thinking it, and now one of his contemporaries has actually said it.
Posted by The Franchise
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I have yet to see a boring Mayweather fight, but I'm not what you call an verage fan. I love his fights. From his speed, to his reflexes, defense, footwork, head movement, counter punches... its all awesome to me. I can see how and why someone would say he's boring, he dominates, people want to see him get hit, want to see him in a war, but thats just not him... The name of the game is HIT AND NOT GET HIT, and because he's so damn good at it, people say he's boring... Ummmmmm I like Pacquiao a lot, I love how he represents boxing, but isn't he being a hypocrite talking about money???
@ ICUH8N -
Good to hear from you again. Your points about Mayweather are well taken, and I know sometimes his detractors tend not to give him the credit he deserves for his dominance.
Even given my pro-Pacquiao bias (which I am up front about!), I think Floyd deserves to be considered the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world right now. His blend of offensive and defensive skills is unsurpassed.
He's also earned the right to fight whoever he damn well pleases, but his choices still frustrate me a little at times. If he's as good as he and most observers expect, why not fight Pacquiao? There might be some danger involved, but I'd still favor Mayweather to win, and as it would be the biggest fight that could be made in the sport right now, it would make him more money than any other opponent he could face.
Instead, I think Floyd may choose a fight that will make him less (but still good) money but also put him at less risk of losing his undefeated record. And that's a shame, because at the end of the day, all I really want to see is the biggest and best fights that can be made.
Is Pac Man being a bit hypocritical about fighting for the money? Maybe a bit, as he's not likely to fight, say, a Timothy Bradley just for the heck of it. But in Mayweather I think Pacquiao sees both the biggest challenge AND the most money, and he wouldn't think twice about taking the fight.
I think I have seen a boring Mayweather fight, although I admit I am a fan of his as well. But, part of the reason is because he is so good. The other part though is that sometimes he has done enough to win and not more.
Let me go back through his fights and see what I find in my memory banks.
JMM = not boring.
Hatton = way beyond not boring. a super exciting fight atmosphere and a decent actual fight.
ODH = not boring.
Baldomir = I don't believe that this was a great fight to watch. I may have to say this one was a little boring.
Judah = not boring, but it dwindled down the stretch.
Mitchell = not boring
Gatti = not boring
Bruseles = Floyd always gets grief for this fight. Bruseles didn't deserve to be there, but Floyd Ko's him.
Corley = not boring, but the fight dwindled down the stretch.
N'dou = See Bruseles.
Sosa = probably would have to say this was a bit boring.
castillo = not boring I or II, but II wasn't great.
so there's my impression of a bunch of his recent fights. not always his fault, and not every fight can be spectacular, but that's a decent non-boring record for him.
I always like to throw my 2 cents in. Unfortunately for me though, I'm a pretty busy guy, but I write when something really interests me, like this.
Mayweather has never actually said he wouldn't fight Pacquiao. If the money is right, you know he'll sign that contract. He said, if the fight is 60-40 in his favor, the fight is on. So it's not like he's ducking or avoiding Pac. I can even go on and have a strong argument on why Mayweather DOES deserve the bigger share if you would like me to.
As far as his choice of opponents go, anything and everything he has done, has happened for a reason. Nobody can deny that he fought the best at 130 and 135 lbs. He became world champ at what age? 21? If you look at his career, everytime he moved up in weight, he fought for the green belt (WBC). There was a time when that was the "real" belt for a lot of boxers. Some fights were title elimination bouts. So thats what he always shot for, regardless of who was the champ. At 140 lbs, thats when he wanted to start making money and fought Gatti. According to him, he was making slave wages with Arum. When he moved up to 147 lbs, he tested the waters with the Mitchell fight. He then agreed to fight the UNDISPUTED welterweight champion of the world, Zab Judah. Zab lost to Balodomir, so Floyd fought and beat both... Then came De la Hoya and Hatton for HUGE money fights. You cant blame him there.
When he was retired, all people could talk about was how Pac beat De la Hoya and Hatton much easier than Mayweather, so Pac MUST be better. Sooooooo, Floyd comes out of retirement and fights who? The guy who many thought beat Pac twice and who was regarded #2 in the sport. And he dominated.
Mosley had 2 oppotunities to fight Floyd and turned them down, but NOW he wants to fight? Cotto had an opportunity to fight Floyd right before he moved to welterweight, but he admitted he wasn't ready. Floyd moved on, he wasn't going to wait for them. Kostya Tszyu and Mayweather was NEVER going to happen cause it was Showtime (Tszyu) vs HBO (Mayweather). What did Margarito ever bring to the table? Its a known fact Floyd and Arum do NOT like each other, so you know the money is going to have to be HUGE for Mayweather to fight him.
So my question, what do you wish he did different understanding the situations he was in?
Now, I have A LOT to say about Pac, but feel as if I've said a lot already. Lets just say I think its GREATLY exagerrated on how people act like Pac is soooo great. The guy is an awesome fighter and I love to watch him fight, but since I have strong opinions many Pac fans don't agree with, I'm considered a Pac hater which I'm NOT!!! I love the guy, I just call it how I see it.
I believe Pacquiao is assessed about where he deserves.
He did beat an overmatched and somewhat limited Hatton, an old and drained Oscar, a not elite Diaz, and the smaller man JMM by the slimmest of margins.
But, he absolutely killed Hatton, much worse than anyone before, and destroyed Oscar, which no one had ever done, and completely beat down Diaz, which also had never been done before to that extent.
So maybe the wins themselves, in a vacuum, are a tad overrated, but it's the way he did it that was so eye-opening.
There's no doubt pac comes to fight and is always fully prepared to do his job. The way he beat those 3 guy was awesome to watch. I've always known he was that. Diaz was the weakest champ and in my opinion, had just got beat by a "shot" morales, but somehow got a decision win and the right to face pac. How and why? I don't know. I also feel as if ANY boxer could have beat Oscar that night he fought pac. Roach even admitted he knew Oscar was going to be drained. He also admitted he didn't want to fight Diaz cause it wasn't a challenge. He also admitted Hatton was never good to begin with. So if roach os admitting all this, I'm pretty sure arum knew this too. Seems to me they were wisely choosing his opponents for him to win and make a lot of money. Isn't that why Floyd always gets criticized? I'm not saying it's pacquiao's fault, he always fights whoever they put in front of him. I respect him to the fullest. It's his team I question. Arum said earlier this year that nobody wants to see Mayweather/Pacquiao because Floyd would probably win a boring decision. And moody wants to see that. He also said he doesn't want to deal with the big headache of negotiating with mayweather, so the figh will probably never happen. Roach says he would rather have a 3rd Marquez fight instead of mayweather. All of pacquiao's team keeps saying they don't need mayweather. Seems to me like THEYRE the ones who don't want to make the Mayweather fight. Mayweather has always said that he doesn't need Pacquiao, but he will make the fights that make the most sense, if the money is right, he'll fight anyone.
I think it is very hypocritical of pac to talk about money. They offered Marquez 800k for a 3rd fight when the first 2 combined made more than 20 million. Marquez denied it and that was it, no more negotiating. The fight with hatton almost didn't happen cause of pacquiao. He was stubborn. Roach and arum had to convince him hatton brought more to the table than he thought. Thaere was a lot of convincing there to do cause Pac wasn't hearing it. Even with Oscar, I know there's negotiating, but pac is as bad as Mayweather. Pac had just fought Diaz on ppv and sold what? 200k-250k ppvs? They were giving pac the same deal they gave mayweather, but he still wasn't having it. Sorry, but in my opinion, Pac likes money just as much as Mayweather. I'll get into why I think mayweather deserves more than Pac later on today. I gotta work now.
I think both PBF and Pacquiao are at their peak as far as popularity goes right now. But their respective peaks are not that high, no where near Oscar's or Tyson's. I would have to think that Floyd is actually a better draw right now than Manny.
Obviously, PBF-JMM did better than Manny-JMM I or II, with I being on normal hbo. I am almost 100% sure that PBF-Hatton outsold Pac-Hatton, and clearly PBF-Oscar outsold Pac-Oscar.
Manny has the most rabid fanbase, maybe in the world, in his Filipino countrymen.
But the Phillipines have a population of only 91 million, and is not the economic force that the US is.
The US has 300 million people, and is certinly the richer country.
So maybe Manny brings a huge rating number in the Phillipines, but it must not be translating into actual dollars. Case-in-point, for various reasons, and I am sure money is number one, Manny doesn't fight over there, he fights here, in casinos.
Yeah, you already know the route Im going with this.
Mayweather-De la Hoya 2.44 million
Pacquiao-De la Hoya 1.25-1.4 million (different websites, different numbers)
Mayweather-Hatton 950k
Pacquiao-Hatton 850k
Mayweather-Marquez 1 million
Pacquiao-Marquez II 400k
You would have to add all of Pacquiaos PPVs in his whole career to equal Mayweather's last 3 PPVs. Thats like 10 PPVs vs Mayweather's 3.
I don't know if its true, but I heard they show Pacquiao fights for free in the Phillipines. The US is where the majority of the money comes from. So I'm sure you're right about that one. With that said, Pacquiao probably is bigger internationaly, but what good is that when the majority of the money is made in America? Pacquiao is Top Rank's cash cow, they don't want to see him in the same ring as Mayweather. In my opinion, 60-40 in favor of Mayweather is MORE than fair. But thats just me, everyone has their own opinion, and thats mine.
the sticking points are not only the split, by the entire pot as well.
for example, perhaps manny and pbf go 50-50, and the pot to split is 30 million, 15 mil each, which I think may be possible.
I can understand the logic of either figher fighting against a lesser opponent, for less risk, and a smaller pot, but a much higher split. maybe the pot is only 25 million, but the split is 80-20, so one fighter gets 20 million, and the other lesser opponent gets only 5, and the risk is lower.
or maybe one fighter ends up with less than 15 million, like say 12, but the risk is much less. the marginal 3 million gain from the 50-50 split may not be worth it if the opponent is being a pain in the butt to negotiate with on non-monetary matters as well.
so when people argue, this fight has to happen, because each man can't make more money elsewhere, maybe that's not true. I am not a promoter, and I freely admit I do not know all the economics behind a fight, but I never believe much I hear from any promoter about the business either.
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