Foreman: Mayweather could be devastated by a defeat against Pacquiao

By Boxing News - 04/23/2015 - Comments

1-19By Allan Fox: There’s been wide speculation about how Floyd Mayweather Jr. would be able to handle a loss to Manny Pacquiao, especially a one-sided loss. While some boxing fans believe that Mayweather would handle it with no problems and just fight on with his career, other fans believe it would ruin him mentally.

It’s something that we won’t know until Mayweather experiences his first defeat if he ever does. Former heavyweight champion George Foreman believes that it could be something that will messes Mayweather up to the point where he might have to leave the U.S to escape the situation.

“This could devastate him (Mayweather) as a boxer, not as a man but as a boxer,” Foreman said via Yahoo Sports. “He might have to go out in the country somewhere if he lost. You lose your perspective on who you are as a human being.”

It would be difficult for Mayweather to come to terms with a loss, but I’m sure the $100+ million that he receives for the Pacquiao fight on May 2nd will help console him. I don’t think Mayweather will abandon America and become an expatriate for the remainder of his life living abroad in a place like France like some wealthy people move to when choosing to leave the U.S for whatever reason.

Mayweather enjoys Las Vegas, Nevada a great deal. If he was going to leave the U.S to live in another country, I think it would have to be a place like Monte Carlo. I think he might like living there, or possibly some place like the French Riviera.

“Pacquiao has it a little better. He is already picked as the underdog,” Foreman said. “There’s not a whole lot of pressure on him. But when you have never lost before in a fight of this magnitude, there’s so much pressure on you, more pressure than you have ever had before, more pressure than on any other athlete right now.”

I think Pacquiao has just as much pressure on him to win this fight than Mayweather does. He obviously doesn’t want to lose because he’s looked up to by his fans in the Philippines. A loss to Mayweather also could mess Pacquiao up in terms of him being a pay-per-view attraction. His PPV numbers for his fights against Brandon Rios and Chris Algieri were underwhelming to say the least, and his numbers for his second fight against Tim Bradley weren’t good either. Whether that’s the fault of his promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank due to him putting Pacquiao in with non-stars, is unclear. But it’s probable that Pacquiao will see a dip in his pay-per-view numbers if he were to lose to Mayweather. That’s why I see Pacquiao as having as much pressure as Mayweather. It’s very important that he wins this fight, and he knows it. He’s no unaware of the ramifications of a loss in this fight.

Pressure is a good thing for both fighters because it’ll enable them to fight at their utmost ability. At least they won’t come into the fight overlooking each other. They know this is going to be a tough fight.



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