Floyd Mayweather Breaks Silence About Pacquiao Fight at Basketball Charity Event

Yesterday (July 18) Floyd Mayweather finally addressed the media regarding his missed deadline to sign a deal to face Manny Pacquiao, indicating his is in no rush to make the fight.

At a charity basketball game hosted by Alonzo Mourning and Dwayne Wade, Mayweather revealed that Bob Arum’s self-imposed July 16 deadline was never an influence on his decisions.

“I’m not interested in rushing to do anything. I’m not really thinking about boxing right now,” Mayweather told the Associated Press. “”I’m just relaxing. I fought about 60 days ago, so I’m just enjoying myself, enjoying life, enjoying my family and enjoying my vacation.”

Mayweather last fought on May 1, defeating welterweight champion Shane Mosley by unanimous decision. In the press conference following that fight, Mayweather expressed interest in moving to middleweight to face Sergio Martinez. Mayweather also acknowledged his willingness to face Pacquiao if the Filipino champ changed his stance and agreed to Olympic style drug testing up until the fight.

On his media conference call this past Friday, Top Rank CEO Bob Arum advised that Pacquiao had agreed to a 14 day cutoff for Olympic style drug testing. Although he admitted that he has had no direct contact with Mayweather or advisor Leonard Ellerbe, he stated that he had been negotiating the fight through HBO Sports President Ross Greenburg and Al Haymon, another close Mayweather advisor.

The missed deadline means that Mayweather has lost his “exclusivity” period for Pacquiao. Arum will now look to make fights with in-house fighters Miguel Cotto or Antonio Margarito. However, the door is still open for Mayweather if he contacts Top Rank within the next 10-14 days before the alternate fights are finalized.

But according to Mayweather, boxing is not a priority. Even with accusations that he is scared to fight Pacquiao, Mayweather did not elaborate on if he would ever fight him.

“Like I said, I’m just supporting my family and relaxing. That’s what I’m doing right now,” he said.

So what can we make of this behavior? For me Mayweather’s actions are similiar to how Sugar Ray Leonard handled himself in the latter half of his career. Leonard had become a part-time fighter, fighting sporadically and always being able to dictate the terms of fights in his favor. The most notable of example of this was with Marvin Hagler, who had pushed to fight Leonard in the early 1980s when both men were closer to their peak.

Leonard played along like he was ready to make the bout, even holding a press conference with Hagler invited as a special guest. Leonard then summarily embarrassed the middleweight champ by stating the fight would be the biggest in history, and then bluntly saying “but it will never happen” and walking off. Of course the fight eventually did happen in the late 80’s, when Leonard saw that Hagler was declining.

For now Mayweather is playing dumb, but he knows that the public will not accept him fighting anyone else besides Pacquiao. But how long he is willing to sit is the question. Next year he turns 34, and even with his exceptional skills the reality of decline will be greater.

There is still some speculation that Mayweather’s reluctance is due to his trainer and uncle Roger Mayweather’s upcoming trial (August 2) for allegedly assaulting a female boxer in 2009. A conviction could land Roger in jail for 10 years.

Another theory is Mayweather’s aloofness could be payback for Pacquiao leaving him at the negotiating table in February to take a lesser fight against Joshua Clottey. Pacquiao was adamant about not taking the inital random drug testing up to fight night or an amended 14 day cutoff period. Now that the sides are reversed and Pacquiao is the one compromising, Mayweather may be showing Pacquiao how it feels to be brushed off, however childish it appears. And, the strategy is also a subtle way to show Pacquiao is not in the driver’s seat and can’t dictate terms.

Each rumor has some validity, but the smoke and mirror tactics we’ve witnessed on both sides this year is not only damaging the credibility of both camps, but also the integrity of boxing. I strongly doubt Mayweather or Pacquiao are scared of each other. It just appears that their egos have gotten so large that they’ve lost the skill of compromise and fail to see the bigger picture of what this fight holds for their legacies (and wallets).

The most fans can do at this time is await the outcome of Roger Mayweather’s August 2 trial, which may shed further light on this situation.