By Allan Fox: In a sign that former five division world champion Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr. (49-0, 26 KOs) could soon be making a comeback to the sport of boxing, he’s now pouring compliments over the head of 36-year-old Manny Pacquiao (58-6-2, 38 KOs) by the bucketful in saying he’s one of the best fighter he’s ever fought before in his career.
It’s hard to understand the sudden compliments from Mayweather to Pacquiao considering how one-sided their fight was last year in May 2015. Will boxing fans be willing to pay another $100 dollars per household to see Mayweather fight Pacquiao a second time?
After their incredibly boring fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao last year, I think there’s a lot of fans that won’t want to pay to see them fight each other a second time. Neither guy looked like they were willing to put in any effort in that fight. Mayweather mostly jabbed and threw pot shots. Pacquiao looked like he was unwilling to take the chances that he needed to take for him to win.
Mayweather said this to Fighthype.com about Pacquiao being one of the best fighters he’s ever faced:
“Out of all the fighters that I’ve faced throughout my career, Pacquiao is one of the best fighters. His movement, I mean, he’s fast…..the power comes from the legs and how he turns his shots,” Mayweather said.
If Mayweather does want to make a comeback in 2017, then a rematch against the soon to be 37-year-old Pacquiao gives him a great chance for a big payday. Mayweather could go for his 50th win of his pro boxing career, and he could then break heavyweight Rocky Marciano’s record of 49-0 with that win. But perhaps more important to Mayweather is he would be getting a likely $100 million payday if he takes that fight.
Mayweather said it himself that his asking price for a comeback is a nine-figure payday. He’s not going to get that kind of money fighting Saul Canelo Alvarez, Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia, Terence Crawford or UFC star Conor McGregor.
Mayweather probably could get a $100 million payday fighting unbeaten middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (36-0, 32 KOs), but I think Mayweather doesn’t want to get knocked out, and he surely would if he fought Golovkin. Mayweather wants the $100 million payday, but he also wants to win. Mayweather won’t win against Golovkin. Not only won’t Mayweather win, but he’ll also likely be knocked out and maybe even viciously unless his corner throws in the towel to save his hide the same way that welterweight Kell Brook’s corner threw in the towel to save him from a shellacking from Golovkin in round five on September 10 last month.
Mayweather said he thought the Golovkin-Brook fight looked like a fix to him, because of the way it was stopped in the fifth round by Brook’s trainer Dominic Ingle throwing in the white towel. I think it might be the same case for Mayweather if his father/trainer Floyd Sr. throws in the towel when Mayweather gets hurt along the ropes and starts taking terrible punishment from Golovkin.
If you compare Mayweather’s fight against Pacquiao to his past matches against Marcos Maidana, Miguel Cotto, Zab Judah, Oscar De La Hoya and Jose Luis Castillo, Pacquiao is far below those fighters in the trouble he gave Mayweather. Castillo and Maidana both arguably beat Mayweather in their first fights with him, but they weren’t given decisions in those fights. Pacquiao wasn’t competitive against Mayweather last year. Let’s be serious.
Pacquiao was totally over-matched, and looked feeble and lost inside the ring for 12 rounds. After getting hit with a series of straight right hands from Mayweather in the first two rounds, Pacquiao stopped attacking him altogether and went into his shell. It was a terribly boring fight to watch. Even the fight had been on free television, it would have upset boxing fans due to the lack of effort from the two fighters.
You’ve got to wonder why all of a sudden is Floyd paying compliments to Pacquiao? Is Mayweather just sentimental and now far enough removed from his boxing career to compliment Pacquiao on his skills or is there an ulterior motive behind the compliments? Given the fact that other fighters did much better against Mayweather than Pacquiao, it brings up the question of why isn’t Mayweather complimenting them? Castillo clearly beat Mayweather in their first fight in this writer’s opinion. I also feel that Maidana beat Mayeather as well.
De La Hoya deserved a draw and not a loss to Mayweather. I counted six rounds that De La Hoya won in his fight against Mayweather in 2007. Cotto almost beat Mayweather as well, and did a far better job against him than Pacquiao. So why isn’t Mayweather saying those guys are the best he fought instead of Pacquiao? Is it because he can’t get a $100 million payday fighting them? I have a difficult time not drawing the conclusion that Mayweather is complimenting Pacquiao because he’s thinking of fighting him again so that he can scoop up another big payday before he returns to retirement with another trip to the bank.
$100 million would go a long way towards cushioning Mayweather in his golden years in the future when he’s no longer capable of fighting. If nothing else, Mayweather could dump the entire $100 million that he gets from the Pacquiao fight and use it entirely on investments. If you sink $100 million in wise investments, it would likely increase the $1 million per month that Mayweather says he makes off his investments.
That would be a smart thing for Mayweather to do, especially given that he can make the investment money the easy way in fighting Pacquiao again rather than risking his neck fighting someone that the boxing world actually wants to see him fight in Golovkin. That would be a real fight, but it would have a very real risk for Mayweather. Golovkin is no joke. He won’t be stopped by Mayweather’s single shot right hands that he likes to throw. Golovkin would walk through those right hands to get close enough to Mayweather to take his head off with left hooks.
It’s no point in Mayweather complimenting McGregor, because he wants a 50-50 split of the revenue for a fight against Mayweather. There’s no way that Mayweather can get a $100 million payday fighting McGregor, because the money would be split evenly, and it’s not a big enough fight to bring in $200 million unless Mayweather hikes the pay-per-view price to $200 dollars per household instead of the outrageous $100 that fans had to pay to see Mayweather’s dull fight against Pacquiao last year. A second fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao might not sell.