By Allan Fox: Floyd Mayweather Jr. lost his cool completely last Saturday night when he was asked by the media about when he’s going to fight Manny Pacquiao in a rematch, and when he’s going to let Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis fight Vasyl Lomachenko. Mayweather snapped, talking angrily about how he’s not been given credit from boxing fans for beating Pacquiao, and how Lomachenko is going to be 40-years-old soon.
When asked by the media about Pacquiao and Lomachenko, Mayweather reacted like an angry bull, showing no interest in discussing the possibilities of setting up either of those fights, even though it would huge money for himself and his fighter Tank Davis.
The fans didn’t give Mayweather credit for beating Pacquiao four years ago in 2015 after learning that the brave Filipino star fought with a torn up right shoulder. He was fighting Mayweather with just one arm, and doing a heck of a good job of it. Since Pacquiao had his injured right shoulder operated on to repair the problem, he’s been trying to lure Mayweather into giving him a rematch, but there’s been no interest on his part. Some boxing fans think Mayweather is flat out chicken, knowing that the fight could be a lot harder the second time around due to Pacquiao being healthy now. Pacquiao recently beat Mayweather’s protege Adrien Broner in schooling him for 12 rounds.
“Your job is to fight, and to keep making those seven figure paydays, and then we’ll move up to those eight figure paydays, and then nine figure paydays,” Mayweather said to Tank Davis. “We’re not going to call any particular fighter out. It’s not as if we’re ducking and dodging anyone.”
Mayweather has been saying that there’s no hurry for him to setup a fight between Tank Davis and Lomachenko. The boxing public were okay with that excuse at the time, but now with Mayweather talking about Lomachenko being 40 soon, and how he’s getting older, it comes across like he’s waiting him out until he’s an older guy before he eventually lets Gervonta face him. It would show the boxing fans a lot more if Mayweather were to make the Tank Davis vs. Lomachenko fight now while the 2-time Olympic gold medalist still has some of his skills left before he becomes a shot fighter, and retires from the sport. Lomachenko’s last two fights against Jorge Linares and Jose Pedraza show that he’s starting to age, and isn’t the fighter that he was a couple of years ago. Mayweather should want to make a fight between Gervonta and Lomachenko right now if he wants his fighter to get credit if he beats him.
It’s hard to see Gervonta Davis progressing to nine figure paydays in the near future with Mayweather not showing any interest in matching him tough against Lomachenko, Miguel Berchelt, or Tevin Farmer. Some boxing fan think Mayweather is doing the same kind of match-making with Tank Davis as he did in his own career by not fighting the talented guys when they were in the zenith of their careers, and instead facing them when they were on the slide. That’s the main criticism boxing fans have about Mayweather’s career. He didn’t fight Pacquiao, Shane Mosley, Oscar De La Hoya, Andre Berto and Juan Manuel Marquez until they got older, and had lost a few steps. Mayweather fought Saul Canelo Alvarez, but before he was in his prime when he was only 22-years-old and not nearly good as he is now. As old and depleted as De La Hoya, Berto, Mosley, Pacquiao and Marquez all were when Mayweather fought them, he was in a position each time were there was next to no chance that he would lose.
“Lomachenko has to fight as many fights as possible extremely quick, because he’s very, very old,” Mayweather said. “Tank is probably 10 years or 11 years younger than Lomachenko. Lomachenko will be 40 before you know it. There’s no rush, Tank. Your job is to go out there and continue to do what you’re doing. You’re making the same money Lomachenko is making, and you’re doing it easier. Lomachenko is a hell of a fighter, and I like Lomachenko,” Mayweather said.
It’s unclear why Mayweather keeps saying “There’s no rush” For Tank Davis to fight Lomachenko. Is Mayweather waiting for Lomachenko to lose all his teeth and have him using a walker before he finally lets Lomachenko fight him? Mayweather continually saying that ‘There’s no rush’ for Gervonta to fight Lomachenko, it sure comes across like he’s ducking him and waiting until he gets older before he eventually reaches put to Top Rank to setup the Lomachenko-Davis fight. It’s not exactly sporting to wait until your competitor gets old before you face them.
For the record, Lomachenko, 30, is only six years older the 24-year-old Davis. Lomachenko isn’t 10 to 11 years older than Tank Davis like Mayweather says. If that were the case, Lomachenko would be 34. Never the less, Lomachenko is starting to show signs of aging, whether that be from all of his amateur fights or simply him getting older the way he normally would even if he’d never fought before. Lomachenko had close to 400 amateur fights in Ukraine, so that might be a factor for why he’s starting to show signs of slippage. It doesn’t matter that Lomachenko won almost all of those fights. He still got hit hard in each one of them, and that kind of thing accumulates over time.
“After Tank went out there and beat the champion [Jose Pedraza] up, Lomachenko went out there and fought Tank’s leftovers and went the distance,” Mayweather said. “And guess what? Tank didn’t have to go to the Olympics. Tank didn’t have to fight 300 amateur fights. Tank didn’t have to fight 400 amateur fights. Tank is going to go out there and get the job done. This one here, this is the real one in boxing,” Mayweather said in seemingly closing the door on a fight between Gervonta Davis and the Top Rank promoted Vasyl Lomachenko.
Timing is everything in boxing. Lomachenko took the fight with Pedraza after a layoff from having shoulder surgery. You couldn’t expect Lomachenko to perform at the highest level with him coming off of a layoff and shoulder surgery. If Lomachenko had taken the fight with Pedraza before he suffered the shoulder injury, he likely would have schooled him and made him quit.
“You didn’t want to give me my credit, and now you’ll screaming this Pacquiao s—t once again, when all you media people were saying what Pacquiao was going to do,” Mayweather said in exploding after one of the boxing media harmlessly asked about a rematch between him and Manny Pacquiao. “Then when I kick his ass, it’s, ‘Ah, let’s do it again.’ It’s Tank’s night. Tank is the champion, and Tank is the face of boxing,” an agitated Mayweather said.
The boxing fans wanting to see Mayweather prove that he can beat a healthy, non-injured Pacquiao isn’t a big deal or at least it shouldn’t be. There’s really not that many people now that want to see Mayweather and Pacquiao face each other in a rematch. As such, it won’t be a big deal if Mayweather never faces Pacquiao again. That’s his decision, but obviously he’s the one that will hurt him big time.
Mayweather can make a lot of money, and keep his name alive a little while longer if he faces Pacquiao in a rematch. With Mayweather no longer fighting world class boxers, it’s only a matter of time before the casual fans stop purchasing his mismatches against MMA fighters. Those things are still selling because Mayweather hasn’t been out of boxing for a long time. But it’s now been four years since Mayweather last fought in a professional fight against a true boxer in Andre Berto in 2015. The fans aren’t going to want to keep paying to see Mayweather fight MMA fighters if he doesn’t keep his name alive by fighting true boxers like Pacquiao.
