By Chris Williams: Muhammad Ali sent a twitter message today giving Floyd Mayweather praise for his win over Marcos Maidana last night, and a request that Mayweather give Manny Pacquiao a fight. Ali didn’t say why he wanted Mayweather to do this for him, but I guess he thinks it’ll be good for the sport of boxing to have Mayweather fighting Manny before he hangs up his gloves. Mayweather’s fight against Maidana was one of the most exciting fights this year. Mayweather accomplished his goal by making for a superb crowd-pleasing fight for the boxing fans by choosing to slug with Maidana instead of boxing him.
“Congratulations Floyd Mayweather. Maybe after you rest up, we can see you rumble with Manny Pacquiao.” – Ali
Pacquiao knows what he needs to do to get the fight against Mayweather, and it’s up to him whether he wants the fight or not. Mayweather said that all he has to do is leave Top Rank when his contract is up and he’ll fight him at that point. Mayweather doesn’t want to do business with Bob Arum. Pacquiao keeps saying that his phone line is up 24/7 for a Mayweather fight, thinking that Mayweather will change his mind and decide to fight him anyway regardless of the fact that he’s still with Top Rank. But that’s not the way Mayweather is. He’s got integrity, and when he says something, he means it. Mayweather doesn’t change his mind and do about face. We saw that with his fight against Marcos Maidana last Saturday night.
Mayweather said ahead of time that he was going to fight Maidana in a toe-to-toe manner, and that’s exactly what he did. Mayweather didn’t swerve away from what he said he was going to do, even though it could have been a very, very easy fight for him if he had fought like he normally does. Mayweather had too much class to change his mind. That’s what Mayweather is. His word is final. When Mayweather says what Pacquiao has to do to get the fight, he’s giving him the straight truth. If Pacquiao wants the fight, he’ll do what Mayweather has told him to do. If Pacquiao doesn’t believe what Mayweather told him, then that’s on him. He won’t get the fight, and he’ll have to be happy with fighting the likes of Brandon Rios and Tim Bradley for the remainder of his career.
Mayweather already offered the fight to Pacquiao on two other occasions, but he was unable to get him to agree to the fight. Mayweather was willing to take a 50-50 deal to fight Pacquiao in 2010, but the fight negotiations fell apart over the drug testing that Mayweather wanted. Mayweather then offered Pacquiao a huge $40 million payday to fight him in 2012, but Pacquiao said no to that deal and decided it was better to take less to fight Juan Manuel Marquez. Pacquiao was knocked clean out in the 6th round of that fight. So not only did Pacquiao get less money, he also got knocked out.
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