Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Victor Ortiz kicked off a tour to publicize their September 17th fight with press conferences in LA and New York last week. The big story to emerge from the New York conference was Mayweather saying he absolutely wants to fight Manny Pacquiao. One of the stories to emerge from the LA press conference was Mayweather sharing that Shane Mosley, Pacquiao’s most recent opponent, advised Floyd to ensure he has Manny drug tested prior to their fight.
Mayweather wouldn’t reveal who reached out to whom with the conversation, but the contents are not a surprise. Mayweather told reporters “Shane Mosley, all he said was ‘You know what Floyd? If I were you, I would make him take the test.’ Especially saying before he went into the fight, he should have made him take the test.”
We all know the reason Shane Mosley didn’t ask for a drug test prior to the fight — all he cared about was cashing in on a huge payday; what happened in the ring was inconsequential.
You may recall that in May, Manny Pacquiao had to issue a denial statement after Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather Jr. publicized a “story” that said Pacquiao was using performance-enhancing drugs. Knowing that, it’s no surprise Mosley made the suggestion to Floyd.
Demanding Pacquiao take Olympic-style drug testing is nothing new for Floyd. The talks for their potential fight stalled in 2009 when Pacquiao would not agree to Mayweather’s testing demands. As I said then and as I’ll repeat now, if Pacquiao doesn’t have anything to hide then drug testing should not be a problem. But the last person who should get involved with these conversations is Shane Mosley. Not only is he a cheater, but he also didn’t care about drug testing as long as he was making millions.
