By Allan Fox: Sounding a little envious of Manny Pacquiao’s fame, Floyd Mayweaather Jr. wants the younger fighters to stop chasing the 41-year-old Filipino superstar.
The problem that Mayweather has is he retired way too soon with his career. By hanging up his gloves in the prime of his career in 2015, Mayweather has missed out on a lot of great fights. In that respect, you can compare Mayweather with baseball great Ty Cobb, who retired in 1928 after hitting .323. Cobb still had a lot left in the tank when he walked away from the game.
Instead, Mayweather says the younger fighters should be fighting each other rather than chasing after WBA welterweight champion Pacquiao (62-7-2, 39 KOs).
No one is likely to pay attention to Mayweather’s advice; however, as a fight against the legend, Pacquiao would increase their popularity and give them a colossal payday.
By retiring too soon in his career, Mayweather has become the forgotten man and seen by some younger fighters as a guy that hustles fights against MMA stars rather than risking his neck fighting elite level boxers.
Fighters shouldn’t chase Pacquiao says Mayweather
“It’s his prerogative to do what he wants to do. I don’t have anything against him, but it’s not me,” said Mayweather to Fighthype when asked if he’s concerned about 41-year-old Pacquiao’s health in still fighting at his age. “It’s sad that you hear guys say, ‘I want to fight Manny Pacquiao.’
“But Manny Pacquiao is 41 now. Don’t chase him. You young guys chase each other. Stop chasing this old man. If the opportunity presents itself, go out and do what you got to do,” said Mayweather.
Why wouldn’t younger fighters want to fight Pacquiao? Not only will they get a tremendous payday, but they’ll have the spotlight put on them to win new boxing fans.
Mayweather sounds disconnected from the reality of the younger fighters today. With an estimated net worth of $700 million and $1 billion, Mayweather no longer knows what it’s like to be a younger fighter, trying to get a big payday against a star like Pacquiao.
Mayweather doesn’t need to worry about the same things that fighters in this era are concerned with, trying to make a living. In other words, Mayweather has made his money, and he’s no longer living in the same world as fighters that need to scrape together enough cash to exist.
Mayweather wants Pacquiao to pick and choose
“Let Manny Pacquiao pick and choose who he wants to fight. With everything he’s accomplished, hopefully, he’s made some smart investments,” said Mayweather.
Pacquiao is ALREADY picking and choosing who he wants to fight. We’ve seen that with Manny fighting Keith Thurman, Lucas Matthysse, and Adrien Broner. Pacquiao’s shortlist of potential opponents are the following:
- Mikey Garcia
- Danny Garcia
- Errol Spence Jr.
The guy that is expected to be selected by Pacquiao is Mikey Garcia, who isn’t one of the elite welterweights in the division. Mayweather might not realize it, but Pacquiao IS fighting the guys that he wants to. However, Mayweather is 100% correct that the younger fighters are chasing Pacquiao to face him before he retires from the sport.
Three big examples of fighters chasing Pacquiao are Spence, Mikey, and Amir Khan. By far, Mikey (40-1, 30 KOs) is the one that is putting in the most effort to try and get the 41-year-old Pacquiao to face him.
Pacquiao is coming off of a career-best 12 round decision win over Keith Thurman last July. Thurman was viewed as the #1 welterweight in boxing from 2016 to 2019, and Pacquiao looked incredible in beating him. With that win, Pacquiao arguably vaulted his legacy past that of Mayweather in the eyes of boxing fans.
