Mayweather Not Interested in Fighting Pacquiao Unless He Takes the Smaller Cut

By Boxing News - 07/14/2009 - Comments

By Manuel Perez: Floyd Mayweather Jr. made it clear today that he won’t be fighting Manny Pacquiao unless the Filipino star takes the smaller cut of the PPV revenue for the fight. Mayweather, 32, will be coming off a two-year retirement on September 19th against Juan Manuel Marquez, and isn’t interested in accepting a 50-50 cut for the fight with Pacquiao despite that figure being the one that Top Rank CEO Bob Arum wants.

Mayweather feels that he’s the bigger star than Pacquiao and is still the top attraction in the sport despite not having fought in two years. Mayweather feels that if Pacquiao wants a fight with him, he should let him know and they’ll pay Marquez a million dollars to step aside while they go ahead and fight.

That’s not likely going to happen and Mayweather probably knows that, because Pacquiao wants to squeeze in another payday against Miguel Cotto before trying to arrange a fight bout with the dangerous Mayweather. Cotto has looked like a shadow of his once former self since losing to Antonio Margarito but he still remains a popular fighter with only one loss, hence the interest by Pacquiao and his team.

Mayweather continued speaking the truth when he made a mention of Pacquiao having been beaten by Erik Morales previously and also adding that Pacquiao should have been beaten twice in his fights with Marquez. This is something that many boxing fans are in agreement with Mayweather over, because Pacquiao struggled badly both times against Marquez and appeared to lose both of the fights the talented Mexican fighter.

However, being the more popular fighter, Pacquiao got the nod what some people refer to as a gift draw in the first fight with Marquez and a highly controversial 12-round split decision in the second fight last year in March. To this day, Pacquiao hasn’t shown any interest in fighting Marquez for a third time.

I guess Pacquiao doesn’t want to risk fate and get beat. Both Marquez and De La Hoya both agree that Mayweather is still the best fighter in boxing. De La Hoya, who was stopped by Pacquiao last year, says he felt more skill coming from Mayweather compared to Pacquiao.

Marquez pointed out that he had already beaten Pacquiao twice, so obviously Mayweather should still be considered the top fighter in the sport because he hadn’t been beaten like Pacquiao has. Just for the record, I totally 100% agree with Marquez about that.

He clearly beat Pacquiao in both fights and I can’t see a beaten fighter like Pacquiao deserving anywhere near a 50-50 deal with a fighter like Mayweather. I could see maybe 20% to 30, but no more than that. Pacquiao attacks a smaller segment of the U.S. and world market compared to Mayweather, who is a true crossover star in the mold of the great Oscar De La Hoya and to a certain extent Marquez.

Pacquiao isn’t at that level from what I can see and I doubt he ever will be. Mayweather, De La Hoya and Marquez seem to bring a little more to the table when they enter the ring compared to Pacquiao, a fighter who has been feasting on limited fighters in the past year since his questionable win over Marquez. I think in the end, Pacquiao will understand where he stands in the big scheme of things and will take the smaller cut to get the fight with Mayweather.



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