Manny Pacquiao could fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. at least once next year, but some believe that Money is avoiding Pacman.
Among those people is ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith, who said during First Take recently that if Mayweather doesn’t fight Pacquiao in his first fight of 2015, then Money would definitely be the one who has been “avoiding” Pacman all this time.
Mayweather slammed the accusation by attacking Smith’s credibility.
“Listen, I don’t give two flying [expletive] what Stephen A. Smith say. I ain’t never seen Stephen A. Smith dribble a basketball, catch a football, or box, so I can give two flying [expletive what Stephen A. Smith say. Quote me on that!” Mayweather Jr. told Fight Hype.
“He’s just a critic. Critics only got an opinion, like everybody else. Everybody can always talk like they’re a football genius, like they’re a basketball genius, or like they’re a boxing genius, but we ain’t never seen them doing nothing but criticize athletes. So it doesn’t matter who I fight.”
Mayweather didn’t directly respond to the claim but further tried to say that Smith isn’t qualified to comment, calling him “a yes man.”
“When it’s all said and done, Stephen A. Smith has a boss that he has to answer to, you know what I’m sayin'. Floyd Mayweather is his own boss. I move when I want to, I say what I want to say, and I do what I want to do,” Mayweather said.
The comments come after it appeared that Mayweather said that he wants to fight Amir Khan next, as opposed to Pacquiao.
“My Dad is desperate for me to take the Khan fight, he just wants me to shut the kid up and put him down,” Mayweather Jr. was quoted by the Daily Mail.
“My Dad doesn’t like fighters trash talking his son – but he knows as well as I do that if the fight happen–then I am going to punish him. If he thinks he can trash talk me and get away with it he needs to think again.”
“My Dad wants the fight, I want to put him on his backside, so hopefully we can make it happen,” he added.
It’s believed that both Mayweather and Pacquiao will retire soon, after several more fights, and fans and analysts want them to fight each other before they grow any older.
“The older they get, the less intriguing that fight gets. I don’t want to see two over-the-hill guys. I don’t wanna see an over-the-hill Pacquiao and an over-the-hill Mayweather fight each other. I want to see two guys at the top of their game both still beating the hell out of people,” trainer Jack Loew told Fight Hype.
Loew, who is best known for his work with former world middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik, questioned whether Pacquiao could beat Mayweather.
“Two years to three years ago, right before Pacquiao got knocked out, honestly I’m wondering what Pacquiao would do against a top-notch fighter like Floyd because that knockout he took against Marquez, that shit effects fighters right there. Mayweather is an A-level fighter, so how would Pacquiao approach that fight,” he said.
Loew believes that the only way to beat Mayweather is to “fight him like Maidana did in their first fight,” giving him a good fight right off the bat.
