"Manny has zero chance against Floyd now. And he's been hitting guys, so it's not like people slipping and sliding his punches. He couldn't miss Brandon Rios and he didn't go anywhere. His punching power is gone now. It's gone and of course nobody is stupid as to why it's gone. Like I said, it's a fight that should happen, but at the same time, when it does happen and what happens does happen, which we all know...he should've signed the damn contract when Floyd signed the contract for the fight," stated world-class trainer Jeff Mayweather, who talked about Manny Pacquiao, a potential clash with his nephew, Floyd Mayweather, and much more. Check it out!
PC: Jeff, long time, man. We'll start off with King Mo, who has looked very good in his last couple of fights. What are your thoughts on his recent performances?
JM: I think a lot of it goes back to the healing process more than giving myself credit. We've been working on a few things that I think had a lot to do with he had so many injuries. And that's something that Mo would never use as an excuse or overplay it, but we just had a heart to heart talk and he told me how tough it was to deal with the ACL and the staph infection. So with him healthy now, we got a chance to work on distance more than anything. That's one thing that we have been working on because Mo has an extremely long reach for a guy his size. And for the first time in this camp, we really took advantage of it. We worked on it and we worked on it consistently every day. I seen it progress in his sparring and in the fight, his hands looked good.
PC: Vegas is great for boxing, but as far as MMA goes, do you feel like Florida is the right place for Mo, and will you be able to just travel out there when it's time to train the boxing aspect of things?
JM: I understand that where he's at is where he needs to be in terms of MMA. When I got sick, Mo was the only fighter that I had that stayed there, came by, and checked on me and found out what I needed to be eating and things like that. He was really, really concerned about me and that's why I have no problem leaving my fighters to go down there and work with him because he showed me what he was really about as a person, not just as a fighter, and I deeply appreciate it. When everybody else left, Mo was still there, and he waited for me to get better and we have a great relationship.
PC: Moving on to one of your boxers, what can a fighter who so much was expected of, like Kevin Newman, learn from getting a draw in his pro debut?
JM: I think that it was a dose of reality. The one thing is this, you don't know until you get in that ring the magnitude of being on a Floyd Mayweather card. A card that big in your first fight, it seems like that's what you would want, but if you allow the pressure of it to get inside of your head, that's what happens. And I think that was a big big part of it. First time fighting on a Floyd card and the hype of being...especially after being showcased on All Access as one of the up-and-coming guys of TMT. I think it was a valuable lesson learned. I actually thought he still won the fight, but he knew and I knew he didn't do as well as he can. He went into defensive mode more than being active. He displayed being a great defensive fighter, but defense don't win fights. It prolongs your career, but at the end of the day, you still gotta let your hands go. But since that time, he's been deeply motivated and working extremely hard almost to a fault. It's almost like he's punishing himself. Like I told him, "Kevin, you just gotta be yourself and continue to work hard and stay focused. That's it. This is a part of boxing. It happens. Now you realize how big it is to be on a big stage like that." He had a lot of expectations on him where people were like, "Oh my God, this guy is going to do this and he's going to do that." And then all of a sudden, you're there, and when you get there, sometimes you're like a deer in headlights; you freeze.
I think that was a little bit of it. But like I said, he got to a point where he was like punishing himself and I told him he had to stop. He has talent; he just gotta stop beating himself up. It got to a point where he would come to the gym and not say a word to no one and we would train. I like to have fun when I'm training, and I mean, that's me and that's how I been training him his whole career. So now we were just training without a word spoken; not even a joke. He was that way for about a month or so and that's when I told him, "Kevin, the only thing you gotta do is get back in the gym, continue to work hard, and do what you know you capable of doing. One thing is this, we need to work on you just letting your hands go. As far as skills, there is no problem with your skills. Your skills are elite, but you still gotta let your hands go because that's what wins fights." He understands it now and I'm looking forward to a much better showing the next time out.
PC: Manny Pacquiao just handily beat Chris Algieri in China. What did you think of his performance?
JM: Well, I mean, I thought his performance was dominant, but at the same time, who was Chris Algieri? I mean, if Floyd would have fought Chris Algieri, the whole world would have crucified him. There is a different standard. I mean, yeah, Manny Pacquiao won; he beat a guy that he should have beat, but he had no experience at all. To be honest, to me, I didn't even think the guy won the fight against Provodnikov. It's one of those situations where Manny gets credit for beating an average Joe. I mean, a guy that had one good moment in boxing, now all of a sudden, he's somebody. At the end of the day, Chris Algieri was nobody and he showed up like nobody. He showed that he didn't even belong in the same ring. And I don't know what was going on with his corner men. His corner men...I don't know what they were on. They must've been on crack or something (laughing). What they were seeing nobody else was seeing. You're telling this guy, "Man, you doing great!" Really? He just got knocked down 3 times. You're down by 6 points and you tell your guy the fight's just getting started? And then all of a sudden, he says he's about to let the beast out of the cage and he goes out there and...to be honest, that was the only legitimate knockdown he got. When he said he was letting him out of the cage, that was the only legitimate knockdown of the night. All of the other knockdowns that Pacquiao had, Algieri created himself because he was so scared and off balance and everything. I never seen a guy fight like that in a fight of this magnitude. But at the same time, it's just like I said about my fighter, Kevin Newman. It was the exact same thing that happened to Algieri, but my guy was making his pro debut. Algieri stepped in there and it was a stage that was too big for him to be himself. Basically he dropped the ball. He didn't even give half the performance he did against Provodnikov, making Manny Pacquiao look like he was way better than he was. But at the same time, we're talking about a guy that's on an elite level and a guy that just so happened to get a gift decision to me and then happened to be in a big fight. That's what I think happened.
A lot of people in the gym got caught up in his size and his so-called boxing ability or whatever. But my thing is this, like I said, in the fight with Provodnikov, if a guy had good boxing ability, why was your eye all swole up like that? I don't know what kind of boxing ability that is. You're fighting a guy you're 4 to 5 inches taller than; I was never really impressed by him. That's just my take on it. But like I said, he fooled a lot of people with the factor of him being tall and people thinking that he was a great boxer. I don't know why, but people thought it. Don't get me wrong, he kind of did like Bernard Hopkins. Bernard Hopkins had everybody fooled that he was about to go out there and do this and do that. Come fight time, once Bernard Hopkins got hit upside his head, Bernard Hopkins went into survival mode. He didn't even really try. Bernard tried maybe two or three times throughout the whole fight. That's the first time I ever seen Bernard Hopkins go into a shell and mentally check out. His disposition to me was, "I can't win, but I'm not gonna get hurt." And that's what I seen in his fight. You can't win a single round throwing 12 punches a round and that's what Bernard was throwing. Even if you are landing at a 100% rate, you not gonna win that round (laughing).
PC: This Mayweather/Pacquiao fight has been discussed and negotiated and you've even found yourself in the middle of it a few times. I'm kind of tired of it and, to a degree, I'm sure you are too, but whenever one of them fights, we have to talk about it. In your opinion, is this the time for the fight to happen?
JM: Well, I mean, this is a time for it to happen because it's getting to a point where the public is demanding it; everybody is demanding it, and that's been the case for the last I don't know how many years, but I think at this point, it has to happen just because of the fact that both of their careers are winding down. Especially Floyd. Floyd is already committed to his career only lasting one more year and I think this is the time to do it. To be honest, I wasn't impressed with Pacquiao at all. Of course he did what he was supposed to do to a guy that didn't really have any experience and never had no big fights and just happened to be on a stage that was way too big for him. I think Pacquiao was sloppy. He missed so many punches and because of the fact that Algieri couldn't punch is why Pacquiao didn't get hurt in the fight because he got punched with the same exact right hand that he walked into when he fought Marquez that knocked him out cold. But Algieri threw the punch and didn't follow up. He threw the punch and took off running after he landed it. I see nothing honestly for people to still be clamoring for the fight other than the fact that Pacquiao won. And like I said, who did he beat? He was supposed to beat Chris Algieri, a guy that nobody knew until about 2 to 3 months ago.
PC: When you hear guys like Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless debate boxing, especially your nephew because, let's be honest, they only talk about boxing when Floyd or Manny fight...Terence Crawford just put on a helluva performance and that won't get 2 seconds on ESPN...but anyway, do you take their debates with a grain of salt because they don't really talk boxing enough to command your attention or does it agitate you a little bit?
JM: It aggravates me a little bit because they don't know a damn thing about boxing. You got two guys who...I don't even know what Stephen A. Smith or Skip Bayless ever done in life as far as being athletes themselves to be honest. Was he an athlete of any kind?
PC: Stephen A. Smith played some college basketball.
JM: Okay, he played some college basketball. That makes him an expert on every damn sport? No! He's just a guy that loves sports and sits down and tells people what he thinks, and to me, that means nothing. And plus, the show is designed that way. It's designed for Skip Bayless to crucify Floyd and for Stephen A. Smith to be on Floyd's side, but who made him the spokesperson for Floyd Mayweather? Nobody made him the damn spokesperson for Floyd. Floyd never told him, "You represent me." So what he say don't mean a damn thing at the end of the day. The one thing is this, first of all, they keep talking about Floyd didn't want the fight. Floyd wanted to fight Pacquiao when Pacquiao was at the peak of his career. Pacquiao didn't want to take a blood test because we know what he was doing. Everybody knew what he was doing. It ain't no secret. It ain't no secret and his own coach threw him under the bus. Freddie Roach said, "Ariza was doing this and doing that," but you not realizing by saying that, you're basically saying your fighter was dirty. You saying that this guy was dirty, but he was the one giving stuff to your fighter, so what does that mean? That just justifies why the fight didn't happen the first time. And then he was offered $40 million the next time. He's not gonna see that kind of money nowhere else. So now all of a sudden, he's coming at Floyd because he needs help. He needs Floyd; Floyd don't need you. Floyd gonna be fine if he never fights Pacquiao. All that legacy bullshit don't mean nothing. At the end of the day, Floyd played with the guy [Juan Manuel Marquez] that knocked you out cold and beat you 3 out of the 4 times y'all fought, if not all 4 times in my opinion. Floyd came back after a year and a half layoff and played with this guy. And now all of sudden, you haven't had a knockout in 5 years. I wonder why that is? Once somebody said we need to start doing this testing, all of a sudden he don't get anymore knockouts. What happened? Ain't nobody no fool.
And that was the only time he had a chance against Floyd. Manny has zero chance against Floyd now. And he's been hitting guys, so it's not like people slipping and sliding his punches. He couldn't miss Brandon Rios and he didn't go anywhere. His punching power is gone now. It's gone and of course nobody is stupid as to why it's gone. Like I said, it's a fight that should happen, but at the same time, when it does happen and what happens does happen, which we all know...he should've signed the damn contract when Floyd signed the contract for the fight. It's a no-win situation for Floyd, but at the end of the day, it's what the people want and eventually Floyd gonna give the people what they want. The one aspect in this fight that can never change is Floyd will always be older than Manny Pacquiao. So who can say, "Well Manny Pacquiao is old now." Yeah, he is, but he's not older than Floyd, so that point is mute. It's a stupid thing to say something like that. It is what it is, but hopefully it will happen just for the fact that in boxing, in this era, it should happen. People are clamoring for it. But like I said, if Floyd would have fought Algieri, oh my God. He would have been talked about so bad. Every damn bad word you can say about boxing would have been said (laughing). But the great Manny Pacquiao fights a dude nobody never heard of on pay-per-view and everybody acts like he really done something. Please (laughing)!
PC: I always appreciate your time and your honesty my man. Is there anything else you wanna say before I let you go?
JM: Bye (laughing)! That's good enough for me (laughing)!
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]