Pacquiao says “I don’t need him [Mayweather], he needs me”

By Boxing News - 09/01/2010 - Comments

Image: Pacquiao says "I don't need him [Mayweather], he needs me"By Dave Lahr: Manny Pacquiao (51-3-2, 38 Ko’s) still refuses to admit that he badly needs to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. to validate his career. I don’t know why Pacquiao just won’t admit that without a win over Mayweather, he will likely always be considered less than him by many boxing fans. In the latest boxing news, Pacquiao had this to say about Mayweather in an article by Dan Rafael: “I don’t need him [Mayweather], he needs me. Compare my achievements in boxing to his achievements.” I think Pacquiao does need Mayweather and badly, because beating guys like Miguel Cotto, Ricky Hatton, Oscar De La Hoya, Joshua Clottey and maybe Antonio Margarito aren’t the kind of wins that will measure up to what Mayweather has accomplished in my view. It’s all about timing and catch weights.

Cotto was a good fighter but when he fought Pacquiao, Cotto had already had the stuffing beaten out of him by Margarito only two fights earlier. That was hardly a prime Cotto Pacquiao faced last year, and besides that, Cotto had to fight at a catch weight against Pacquiao, even though Cotto was the WBO welterweight champion, not Pacquiao. Hatton had already been knocked out by Mayweather, so Pacquiao’s win over Hatton doesn’t mean anything. De La Hoya was totally weight drained and shot by the time he fought Pacquiao.

He was an old, drained 36-year-old by the time Pacquiao fought him. Clottey didn’t even seem to try and fight. He just covered up for the most part, looking more like a sparring partner than an opponent. Clottey fights for the same promotional company Top Rank as Pacquiao. Margarito, although he hasn’t been beaten yet by Pacquiao, he probably will. Margarito was beaten by 38-year-old Shane Mosley last year, and looked like a shell of himself in that fight and his recent fight against little known Roberto Garcia in May. Margarito’s power is gone for some reason and it makes you wonder what happened to it. It’s great timing for Pacquiao to be fighting Margarito now that his power appears to be gone. I’d have loved to see Pacquiao fight Margarito when he was still punching hard in 2008, but right now it seems like a case of Margarito being a winnable fight for Pacquiao.

Pacquiao says “We agree with, you know, his [Mayweather] demands. I wanted to know if that’s his real reason for” [not fighting him. Obviously, Mayweather is concerned about the blood testing for performance enhancing drugs. I think Pacquiao agreed to Mayweather’s demands for their first negotiations, which at that time Mayweather wanted random blood testing to be conducted up to 14 days before the fight. Pacquiao wanted 24 days, and the fight fell apart. But Mayweather changed everything up and said he wanted the full random blood tests, not with a cut off point. So if Pacquiao is talking about meeting Mayweather’s demands, he’s likely talking about during the first negotiations and not the second ones. If Pacquiao wants the fight with Mayweather all he has to do is agree to the full random blood tests and then depending on how well or bad his fight against Margarito does in November, he may have to settle for taking a smaller cut of the revenue, say 60-40 with Mayweather getting the larger share. You can’t expect Mayweather to give Pacquiao a 50-50 deal if his fight against Margarito does mediocre pay per view numbers, can you?



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