“Once I kick the midget’s ass, I don’t want y’all hopping on my dick. Y’all better get on the bandwagon now!”
Floyd Mayweather
After months of silence following his Shane Mosley victory and another round of failed Manny Pacquiao negotiations, Floyd Mayweather has finally opened up on his future plans in boxing.
In a viral clip released on his UStream account, Mayweather confirmed he won’t be fighting for the rest of the year, dispelling rumors that he would be taking a bout this November in Abu Dhabi. The undefeated superstar also stood firm on his demand that Pacquiao submit to random, Olympic-style blood testing.
“At this particular time I don’t know if I’ll fight again. As of right now I truly believe I’ll fight again,” Mayweather said. “But as of right now I don’t have the urge. But what I do have the urge to get up. But when I do believe me my UStream and my Twitter fans will be the first to know…We will kick Poochiao’s ass. He’s gonna take the urine and blood test.”
Mayweather detailed the importance of boxers testing clean for health reasons. He also addressed Bob Arum’s supposed “deadline” to sign for the Pacquiao fight in July. While he didn’t get into specifics of the controversy around his non-answer, Mayweather dismissed the matter as trivial and beneath him.
“If an athlete is cheating, then we’re truly cheating the fans. It’s not like we’re hitting home runs, we’re hitting human beings,” he detailed. “It’s killed or be killed. I rose to the occasion. All 41 times. you got the media telling you Floyd Mayweather had a deadline; we’re not worried about that. I get it where I fit in.”
Mayweather has a derisive new nickname for Manny Pacquiao, referring to him as “Poochiao” and his steroids as “power pellets.” As he’s done for the past two years, Money Mayweather clowned Pacquiao for his early career KO’s, lost to Erik Morales and draw with Juan Manuel Marquez. In addition, he criticized Pacquiao’s business sense for his split contract between Golden Boy and Top Rank, and his endorsement deal with Nike.
“Poochiao got 3 losses, 2 draws, and been knocked out twice. When I beat him it’ll be a cakewalk and it’s on to the next one,” Mayweather boasted. “We know that Poochiao made six million in his last fight, and Floyd Mayweather made $65 million in his last fight, so I have a winning team behind him…That motherfucker Pacquiao can’t speak no English. He never seen a contract that he didn’t like. This motherfucker signed with two companies, look it up! And then this motherfucker with Nike [and] only got 70 G’s. How stupid can a motherfucker be? Reebok gave me a million dollars for three weeks…”
The rest of the video can be viewed below. Manny Pacquiao faces off with Antonio Margarito on November 13.
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Mayweather’s part-time fight approach is not without precedent. Those who were around in the 80s or studied boxing history will recall that Sugar Ray Leonard did the exact same thing; taking long breaks and only coming out to make lucrative fights or snag dubious title distinctions (see his 1988 bout with Danny Lalonde, where he won a super-middleweight and light-heavyweight belt at the same time!). The criticism Mayweather is getting now is very similar to what Leonard went through after delaying his acceptance to fight a then undefeated Tommy Hearns.
Mayweather-Pacquiao should not only have happened this year, but we should be discussing or preparing for a rematch right now. I place higher blame with Pacquiao for the early 2010 negotiations falling through. Mayweather had agreed to all of Manny’s special stipulations like a million per pound penalty for excess weight over 147, a smaller ring, and smaller gloves which would benefit a puncher like Pacquiao. Mayweather’s only special requirement was the testing. From there multiple contradictory statements started coming from Pacquiao’s camp on why he wouldn’t accept. It not only hurt his image but caused many to speculate if he truly had an issue with steroids.
But this time around it’s the exact opposite. It’s Floyd’s camp who cannot get their story straight. From Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer, to Mayweather advisors Al Haymon and Leonard Ellerbe, everyone had a different story on whether Bob Arum’s deadline was legit and there had actually been a second round of negotiations. It took HBO Sports President Ross Greenburg to verify Arum’s claims and embarrass Mayweather’s camp. And the sad thing is, this could have all been avoided if Mayweather had simply said he wasn’t interested in fighting anymore this year and would look at the Pacquiao fight in 2011. We wouldn’t have liked it, but we would have respected the honesty and looked at other potential fights this year.
The fight will happen next year. Not because both guys necessarily want each other, but because there’s no one else the public will accept them fighting. Writers have been blasting the Pacquiao-Margarito fight, and will do so leading up to November. If Pacquiao gets past him, there’s no other in-house fights (Cotto, Chavez) that won’t meet with the same or more criticism. Same goes for Mayweather if he returns to the ring.
So until these two egos get on the same page, our focus should be on the Super Six and guys like Yuriorkis Gamboa, Juan Manuel Lopez and Amir Khan to close out the year.
Beats, Boxing and Mayhem 