During a private sitdown meeting with select members of the media, undefeated pound-for-pound champion Floyd Mayweather addressed recent reports that he contradicted himself when he told a journalist attending his open workout that he never said Pacquiao would indeed be his next opponent. During a previous press conference to promote this Saturday's showdown with WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz, Mayweather stood at the podium and stated, "Manny Pacquiao, yes, you're next!" According to Mayweather, he made that comment because it was something that the fans and the media wanted to hear, and he wanted to make it clear that he's not avoiding the fight for any reason whatsoever, however, due to obstacles that are still standing in the way of making the fight a reality, he can't honestly say that Pacquiao will indeed be his next opponent, assuming that all goes well on Saturday.
"They don't tell these fighters certain things that I tell these fighters, so does that make me a bad guy? Absolutely not. That makes me honest. Have I ever contradicted myself? Absolutely. I'm only human. We all have. When they say, 'Oh, yeah, he contradicted himself about the Pacquiao fight,' yeah, I mean, when I get up on the podium and I say, 'Yeah, Pacquiao, you next,' if that's what y'all want to hear, that's what I gotta give y'all because that's what y'all want to hear anyway," Mayweather explained. "I'm not ducking and dodging nobody; never have ducked and dodged no one."
It appears Mayweather is under the impression that finances could be a new obstacle that will delay the fight. Truth be told, it's a notion that he might not be wrong about. Although Pacquiao recently revealed that "there's no more issue" regarding Mayweather's request for random Olympic-style blood and urine testing, he also made it clear that they still had to discuss "profit sharing, and also the guaranteed purse", something that his promoter, Bob Arum, has time and time against said was already agreed upon. Apparently, Pacquiao didn't get that memo and believes that he and Mayweather still need to negotiate the finer points of the money split.
"Pacquiao needs to, before you worry about facing me, first of all you gotta have your business in order; get your business in order first, as far as, you know, go get your money on the backend. Go get you some money on the backend. Learn about that, you know, where you can sit back and do business with honest guys like Al Haymon, Richard Schaefer, and you can sit back four or five years and checks still comes in for $300,000, $400,000, $1.2 million, or have the biggest contract," Mayweather continued, perhaps suggesting that Pacquiao will have to do battle with his own promoter when it comes to profit sharing and his guaranteed purse. After all, as Mayweather has pointed out on several occassions, he's his own boss, therefore, he keeps 100% of his profits. It is that very same reason why Mayweather is unsure of whether or not Pacquiao will truly be his next opponent, especially if he thinks there will actually be an even split of all the profits.
"As far as, you know, they say that, you know, Mayweather contradicted himself; it's not that...they said, 'Well, you said that Pacquiao is next.' We don't know who's next, honest. We don't know who's next. But no matter who's next, we gonna give entertainment," Mayweather added.
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