"I'll be honest, seeing Manny Pacquiao I guess end his career fighting on ESPN is a combination of good and bad. I think it's a combination of both. I think that it is great for his fans to be able to see him for free, but it don't matter because in the Philippines, you see everything for free (laughing). But for his American fans and the people that appreciate him over here, it's great in that aspect," stated world-class trainer Jeff Mayweather, who shared his thoughts on the upcoming clash between 8-division world champion Manny Pacquiao and unheralded challenger Jeff Horn. Check out what else Mayweather had to say about Pacquiao, the fight, and much more.
JEFF MAYWEATHER ON PACQUIAO VS. HORN:
I also think that Pacquiao pissed off the networks when he wouldn't take the fight they were trying to make with him and Crawford. I think that that has a lot more to do with it than them really giving us a gift. I think it has more to do with the networks not wanting Pacquiao anymore because he is at the end of his rope and he's fighting a guy that nobody knows. He didn't even know the guys name, so if you don't know him, nobody else knows him, what's the point of fighting him? So basically, that in itselfÂ…it looks good that you're giving the people an ESPN fight, but the reality is this, Showtime or HBO don't care about that fight. So the best out was, "We're going to give the Pacquiao fans a chance to see him on free TV." So it was deception. They made people think they were getting this free gift when in all actuality, no one else wanted this fight. It is deception, but at the end of the day, people will still be happy to see it and they'll tune in because it's free. You gotta realize most people in America have Showtime and HBO, if they are a boxing fan, so you don't have to finish your career on ESPN. But on ESPN, you're going to get ratings through the roof because of the fact that it is free and it's not subscription based. But HBO took their contract from him anyway. They had that fight where Pacquiao fought someone and Crawford fought Postol and they were thinking that fight was going to be made next and they were looking for him to pass the torch and he did everything but pass the torch. He went in the opposite direction.
No one can fight forever. Just like I think Floyd fighting the Conor McGregor fight is definitely his last fight, I think it's time for Floyd and Pacquiao, two of the best fighters of their era, to call it a career. They both had a great career, they both made tremendous money, what is there to fight for? When you're closing out your career fighting somebody that nobody, and you even admitted that you don't know this person, so how can you even look at that as something for people to even want to tune in to? The only people going to tune in to that is true Pacquiao fans. Don't get me wrong, even though I think they are deceiving the public by acting like they are doing them a favor, I just think that it's still a great thing. I understand the fact of giving something back is great, but at the same time, what are you really giving back? The networks don't even want Pacquiao no more. HBO took his contract from him. Being that they took the contract from him, at his age now, Showtime is not going to beat down the door to try to get a fight from him and get him on their team. It's a little bit of deception, but at the end of the day, it's still good for the fans. It's good for the fans to see one of the elite fighters go out where you can actually flip your TV on and tune in without having to subscribe for it or pay for it. The only difference between him fighting on HBO or Showtime and ESPN is it won't be commercial free (laughing). We won't get to hear the between the round instructions. So hopefully they get a lot of sponsorships. They probably will because it's on free TV. And this still may not be Pacquiao's last fight because he may still wanna cash out. He may want to actually cash out and fight Terence Crawford. So I don't think this is really the end of Pacquiao; no one knows yet.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]