Mayweather: I offered Pacquiao $40 million for a fight before his loss to Marquez

By Boxing News - 04/30/2013 - Comments

pac8By Chris Williams: In an interview last night with ESPN, Floyd Mayweather Jr. says he gave Manny Pacquiao a huge $40 million offer to fight him before Pacquiao’s crushing 6th round knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez last December, but the Filipino turned down the offer by asking for a 50-50 deal instead. The $40 million that Pacquiao rejected would have easily been the biggest payday of his career, and yet he failed to take Mayweather up on the offer.

Mayweather said to ESPN: “I called Pacquiao and offered him $40 million dollars and this came before the Marquez fight. I told him I would have his $20 million without 48 hours. He told me he wanted 50-50 and got off the phone. I’m not scared of no fighter, but where was the guy when I was dominating the sport in 98, 99 and 96? This guy was never heard of. This guy just popped out of nowhere just walking through the bigger, stronger fighters, and the guy comes from 105. Are you serious? Once again, I never said he took anything. All I said is I want to be on an even playing field. There’s no blueprint in how to beat me. I can crack any Da Vinci code when I’m in the ring.”

I know Pacquiao’s fans will say this is beating a dead horse, but Mayweather keeps getting asked the questions from ESPN and other members of the media why he hasn’t fought Pacquiao. It seems that Mayweather did give it his best shot by offering Pacquiao $40 million, but evidently Manny was looking for a different kind of deal in wanting the loot split in half between them.

Pacquiao may or may not have gotten more money had he gotten a 50-50 deal. We’ll never know because the fight wasn’t made, but we do know that Pacquiao would have received a lot more money than he did in his last fight against Marquez. Pacquiao received a guaranteed $26 million for that fight. Do the math. I think Pacquiao would have made a lot more money had he agreed to Mayweather’s $40 million he offered to him. That’s an extra $14 million that Pacquiao could have had if he had said yes to the fight.



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