Mayweather: Bradley and Marquez showed Pacquiao he wasn’t on my level

By Boxing News - 05/02/2014 - Comments

mayweather3411111By Chris Williams: Earlier today Floyd Mayweather Jr. ruled out a fight happening between him and Manny Pacquiao in the future due to Pacquiao’s struggles in the ring against Juan Manuel Marquez and Tim Bradley in the past.

Mayweather said that Pacquiao thought he was on his level, but that those fighters showed that he’s not in the same class as him. Mayweather also said that he’s with Mayweather Promotions. He didn’t finish what he meant by pointing that out, but it’s possible that he’s dropping another hint that he won’t be fighting Pacquiao while he’s still with Top Rank.

“The opportunity presented itself [to fight] on more than one occasion, but this guy [Pacquiao] isn’t in the same position he was before,” Mayweather said to ESPN. “He’s like ‘I’ll take the test and do whatever it takes to make the fight happen,’ but at one particular time he thought he was on the same level as me. But once Marquez showed him that he wasn’t on the same level as me, and Tim Bradley showed that he wasn’t on the same level as me.”

Mayweather hardly needs to bring up the painful reminder about Pacquiao’s crushing defeat at the hands of Marquez in 2012. The real killer of a future Pacquiao-Mayweather mega fight is Pacquiao being on the verge of signing a 5-fight extension with Bob Arum that will take Pacquiao through at least 2016 before it expires. Pacquiao would then be 37, and he’s already said that he plans on retiring in 2 years, so this 5-fight contract extension would finish Pacquiao’s career. The important thing about this is that it would permanently close the door to Pacquiao fighting Mayweather, as well as other fighters like Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Amir Khan, Danny Garcia, Lucas Matthysse, Shawn Porter, Adrien Broner, Keith Thurman, Lamont Peterson and Erislandy Lara.

If you’re a Pacquiao fan then you can at least be happy that he’ll likely be fighting Marquez next in September if Marquez beats Mike Alvarado this month in their fight on May 17th. Pacquiao’s fans will likely be excited at seeing him fight the soon to be 41-year-old Marquez for a 5th time. If Pacquiao avenges that defeat, Arum can match him back up with the likes of Bradley and Brandon Rios again, if Pacquiao re-signs with Arum.



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