Floyd Mayweather Jr. insists he is serious about fighting Manny Pacquiao, and the undefeated champion wants the bout to take place in less than five months. Pacquiao has no problem with that, but he doesn’t expect a good fight from Mayweather even if the two do go at it.
In his first comments since Mayweather attempted to set a date, Pacquiao hinted that he expects Floyd to stay away from him in the ring in order to protect his undefeated record.
“He has reached a dead end. He has nowhere to run but to fight me,” Pacquiao said, via The Detroit Free Press. “I will try my best to make this a thrilling and entertaining fight. But I doubt if he’s gonna engage me in a slugfest. You all know his fighting style. Most of his previous fights, if not all, induced us to sleep.”
After losing both of his fights in 2012, Pacquiao has come surging back with some exciting victories, the most recent of which was a dominating win over Chris Algieri. Mayweather certainly has more to lose than Pacquiao, as Floyd’s undefeated record has been far and away his biggest concern.
One of the many holdups in past Mayweather-Pacquiao negotiations has been money, but Pacquiao doesn’t envision that being a problem this time around. In fact, he says he told Floyd he would fight him for free. Contrary to what Mayweather says, Pacquiao insists he is not broke and looking for a payday.
“Mayweather can get the amount he wants,” Pacquiao said. “As early as January this year, I challenged him to a charity fight. Until now, he has not agreed to it. So, money is not the issue in our fight. This fight is about legacy, this is about making the fans happy and, above all, this is for the good of boxing.”
The most important takeaway here is that both fighters are talking like the match is actually going to happen. All we’ve seen for months is childish jabs thrown back and forth on social media, but could Mayweather and Pacquaio actually wind up trading real punches in 2015? Time will tell.
H/T For the Win
