MANILA, Philippines – Floyd Mayweather Jr. is pointing at Bob Arum and Top Rank Inc. as the cause of delay in negotiations for a megabuck duel with Manny Pacquiao.
Mayweather recently made his thoughts known in the radio program The Whoolywood Shuffle – a transcript of which has been posted on fighthype.com – where he confirmed that talks are indeed ongoing and everything is still a work in progress.
Only he blamed Pacquiao’s promoter Top Rank for being a hindrance to the fight getting finalized.
"We're trying, but it's been extremely difficult dealing with Top Rank. I don't want to sit right here and point the finger at Pacquiao and say it's him, because it's not Pacquiao. It's his promoter,” the undefeated American said.
Pacquiao himself has given Mayweather until the end of the month to agree to the terms for what potentially could be the richest match in boxing history. The Filipino insists he’s amenable to whatever Mayweather’s demands are and is just waiting for the American’s signature.
But Mayweather denied his rival’s claims.
"Everything that everybody is just insinuating, what everybody been saying on TV is false. It's not true at all...Once again, I've been saying this for the longest, Pacquiao has no say so because Pacquiao fights under Top Rank Promotions. I have Mayweather Promotions. Mayweather Promotions is my company, so Pacquiao, he's not in a position to call any shots as of right now and he's not the A-side, so everything that everybody has been hearing has been rumors,” he explained.
“Do I want to fight Pacquiao? Absolutely! Are we negotiating? Absolutely! But has the fight been made? Not at all," Mayweather added.
Pacquiao wants Mayweather too, but the fighting congressman is willing to move on if a deal can’t be reached for a May 2 showdown.
Mayweather, for his part, remains optimistic.
"Hopefully it's Mayweather-Pacquiao [on May 2],” he said even as he took another opportunity to blast Pacquiao.
“But once again, we have to look at his pay-per-view numbers. His last fight didn't even do 300,000 homes. So let's make this make sense. I mean, he did get knocked out not too long ago. No matter what you say, Floyd Mayweather is still winning. When they take shots at Floyd Mayweather, he's still winning. He's still making hundreds of millions," he reasoned.
“So a lot of times when Pacquiao say, 'Oh, I agree.' You don't have nothing to do with this. You're not a boss. On the chess board, you're a pawn," Mayweather ended. – Dino Maragay