By Chris Williams: On Tuesday, WBA/WBC/WBO welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. confronted a dummy that he used as a prop to get some of his thoughts out about the excuses Filipino star Manny Pacquiao (56-6-2, 38 KOs) came up with after his one-sided 12 round unanimous decision in their fight on May 2nd at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. After Mayweather asked the Pacquiao dummy about his shoulder excuse that he used after his loss to him, Mayweather slapped the Pacquiao twice in the face and then told him to stop telling fibs.
“So, Manny, you out telling people that I didn’t win fair and square, that this little arm is messed up. Is that right? Huh? Talk to me! Stop lying!”
Mayweather never got any credit at all from Pacquiao for whipping him. Pacquiao denied that he lost the fight, and then started with the shoulder excuse. Thankfully, that was the only injury excuse that Pacquiao had for the fight, because it would have been really bad if he came up with additional injuries to try and explain away the loss. But what’s strange is why would Pacquiao need to make an injury excuse if he really won the fight? What’s the point in bringing up an injury if you think you won?
Pacquiao wants that rematch with Mayweather to show what he can do with two healthy shoulders the next time around in 2016. But if Pacquiao wants a second fight with Mayweather, he might have to do some groveling and cringing to get the fight. When someone has something that you want and you’re not in the position to get it, then you’ve got to do whatever you can to appease that person. In this case, Pacquiao might want to start by acknowledging that he was smacked around by Mayweather in their May 2nd fight by the more talented fighter.
After Pacquiao admits that he lost the fight, he’ll do well if he floats a percentage of the cash that he’d be willing to accept. In this case, I think Pacquiao would do well to ask for a 70-30 deal with him taking the small money. This would be the starting point for the negotiations, as I would expect Pacquiao’s number to go down to 75/25 by the time the contract is signed for the fight.
When you lose a fight and then start talking about an injury that you had coming into the fight, then I think that should result in a significant drop in the purse split for the losing fighter. Instead of Pacquiao getting the 60-40 deal like last time, he should get a lower figure. I know that Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum is talking about Pacquiao not necessarily having to accept a smaller cut of the pie in a rematch, but that’s just not going to happen. If Arum starts talking 50-50 or 55-45 cut for a rematch for Pacquiao, Mayweather’s manager will likely laugh Arum out of the negotiating room and tell him to close the door firmly on his way out. Arum can go look for a better deal for Manny with one of his Top Rank stable fighters like Terence Crawford. Pacquiao should get a great deal against Crawford. I don’t think the fight will bring in more than 400,000 pay-per-view buys, but it would be a good fight to stage in Dubai or Macau.
“My rate of my performance was only at 60 percent,” Pacquiao said via Rappler.com. “60% because my mind wanted to do it, but it was outbalanced because I was only relying on my left arm. I want a rematch if he wants. I wasn’t 100 percent ready last night because of this shoulder..”
Comments are closed.