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JEFF MAYWEATHER: "PACQUIAO CAN'T TAKE A CHANCE OF FIGHTING MARQUEZ AGAIN AND LOOKING BAD"

By Percy Crawford | December 09, 2011
JEFF MAYWEATHER:

"If the fight doesn't happen now, then it will probably never happen. Pacquiao can't afford to have another bad performance. If he does, the luster of this fight that once seemed to be a great matchup, like a Tommy Hearns vs. Sugar Ray or Hagler fight, that type of super fight doesn't happen. The luster is already starting to leave. Pacquiao can't take a chance of fighting Marquez again and looking bad. He can't take a chance of fighting a Tim Bradley, a guy who brings nothing to the table anyway except he's going to make you look bad. That's the only thing he brings to the table. He can't take that kind of risk. I have read articles out there, and I don't know how true it is, but I see where they are saying Pacquiao can't fight in May because of some cut he had over his eye. How long is it going to take for his eye to heal? It don't take no half a year," stated world-class trainer Jeff Mayweather, who talked about a number of subjects, including Cotto's performance against Antonio Margarito, the mega-fight between his nephew, Floyd Mayweather, and Manny Pacquiao, and much more. Check it out!

PC: How is everything going Jeff?

JM: Everything is going good. Celestino is working really hard in the gym. He has a fight coming up in Japan, so he's getting ready.

PC: You said that was the best market for him.

JM: Oh yeah!

PC: What did you think about Cotto/Margarito?        

JM: I think that the right guy won this time. Cotto stuck to a game plan and honestly, he did exactly what he was doing in this first fight, but like I said, who knows what was going on with Margarito. Maybe the hand wraps got hard and all of a sudden, he wasn't able to take the same shots that he was able to take early in the fight. Basically, what I seen was a replay of what was happening in the first fight. Even when he was getting caught, the punches didn't have that type of effect on him.

PC: Some people didn't agree with the stoppage. How do you feel about the way the fight ended?

JM: That's just people that want to see somebody get killed in the ring because realistically, this guy was blind in one eye. I mean, going into the fight, he only had one eye. So, I mean, he had no chance of knocking him out because Cotto was sticking to his game plan and Cotto kept moving and giving him lateral movement both ways and Margarito was lost. He could never catch up to Cotto and of course he would land one or two shots, but like I said, they didn't have the same effect that they did in the first fight and even Max Kellerman said that to Margarito, and it was kind of like, "Whoa!"

PC: For some reason, people believe that Margarito is a homerun puncher, and he isn't because even with his previous situation, it was still an accumulation of shots to get guys out of there. I just didn't see his shots having that kind of effect on Cotto.

JM: Right. He was never a big puncher. He was a guy that was so big and he kept tremendous pressure on you, and it's all been lost now because of the possibility of the hand wraps. And now, you're dealing with a monster.

PC: Do you think it mentally messed with Antonio Margarito when Naazim Richardson walked through that door, even though they didn't let him sit in?

JM: Yeah, I think that was all a ploy because they knew that Naazim was licensed, so realistically, he had no reason to be there, in the corner or anything, or even going into the locker room. If he's not licensed or he's not a part of your team, he has no business at all being in the locker room. He's like a fan paying money to come see a fight. But I think that they reached out to him. I don't know if they paid him, but they reached out to him and it was just a ploy to get inside of Margarito's head. All of a sudden, you see a guy who busted you before and it's, all of a sudden, "Wait a second, where did this guy come from?" The reality of it is this, of course there was so much discrepancy and so much at stake with Margarito even attempting that, so basically, it was a ploy anyway because Margarito wasn't going to try and do that. Margarito's whole career was based on it.

PC: I agree. He would have been a fool to try it again.

JM: Yeah, and like I said a long time ago, the thing is this, if you have a child that wakes up every morning before their parents, and there is something that he likes in that house, that child gonna wake up every morning and he gonna get it. That's basically what happened to Margarito. He got in a situation with the hand wraps where he used them for as long as he could until he got caught. Now, once he got caught, everybody got a chance to see the real Margarito. He's 0-3 in big fights. And not only is he 0-3, he got stopped in all 3 fights. I mean you might as well say Pacquiao stopped him. The fight should have been stopped. That basically tells you the story of Margarito.

PC: Jeff, when you look at some of the younger talent showcased lately, like Saul Alvarez, Adrien Broner, and Gary Russell, what do you think of some of this younger talent?

JM: I think that some of the guys are...Broner is an entertaining fighter, but he still hasn't fought anybody. At this point, he is more of an entertainer than a fighter because this last guy he fought wasn't nothing. I mean, it's great that he got the title and everything, and I think there are some great fights for him down the line, but in this particular fight, he didn't do nothing special at all. Then you have Canelo, and I think he is a good fighter, but I don't think he will ever become a superstar. The only way he will become a superstar is because there are no more superstars, and we're kinda grasping for the replacement for Manny and Floyd. So in that sense, he could become a star in boxing because he's an attraction. But when I say star, I'm talking about doing something special in the ring. I see a guy who goes in there and he's a 9 to 5 type of fighter. He's not the type of fighter that has any flare. The biggest thing about him is he is a Mexican that looks like an Irish guy.

PC: (Laughing) Yeah, his looks seem to get more headlines than his ability.

JM: I think so (laughing). And Gary Russell Jr., this kid is extremely fast and talented, but again, like I said, that's where they are; they are still prospects. Even Broner, even though he won that title, he is still a prospect. Either one of those guys aren't commodities because they haven't stepped up to the highest level. I mean, I guess if you win a title, that's the highest level, but not with that weak opposition in front of you. I think that they both will have bright futures in the sport because they do have a...especially Broner because he's a salesman. He's putting himself in that limelight of either you like him or you don't. And once you get to that level, where you get people that don't like you and people that like you, you become a commodity in this sport. "Dad, come here and brush my hair." Those little things like that, and honestly, depending on who you are, to me, it's kind of adolescent, but at the same time, if you can market yourself, no matter how you do it, it works. Right now, he's been able to back it up by beating everyone that they put in front of him. He keeps on winning, so like I said, he's one of those guys either you're going to hate him or like him. He'll have that type of fan base, especially if he continues to be successful; he'll have one of those careers kind of like Floyd. Not in terms of ability or accomplishments, but I'm talking in terms of fanfare. He has something out there, he has a gimmick that has caught on, and it's put a whole lot more money in his pocket than he would if he was just a regular fighter.

PC: Well, in terms of that, I think Margarito actually used this villain role to market himself with the way he's changed his look and wears the black shades and all of that now. He wasn't doing that before he was caught and considered the bad guy.

JM: The one thing about Margarito is, here is a guy that is supposed to be a big threat, and the second he was supposed to be a big threat, he got knocked off. And then, once he got knocked off, he found a way to get back in the picture and he did that by what he did with Cotto. And now, he's pretty much a done deal. Nobody cares about Margarito anymore. He probably should just go ahead and retire. He has nothing left. There is nothing left out there for him. Most fighters aren't going to waste their time giving him a fight anyway.

PC: When you see a fighter with that type of eye injury, I mean, do you think his career ended that night Pacquiao did that to his eye?

JM: I think that, at this point in his career, he's made enough money because he made his money on the back end. These last 3 fights, he made good money. He made enough money, especially being that he's from Mexico, to be set the rest of his life. And he shouldn't even have to take that kind of risk. Whatever his legacy is, at the end of the day, he still made a killing in the ring.

PC: Your nephew is fighting on May 5th. There are talks of negotiations and investors and all kinds of stuff. You don't have to go into too much detail, but what is your take on everything going on?

JM: It's kind of one of them situations, and I have been saying this, if the fight doesn't happen now, then it will probably never happen. Pacquiao can't afford to have another bad performance. If he does, the luster of this fight that once seemed to be a great matchup, like a Tommy Hearns vs. Sugar Ray or Hagler fight, that type of super fight doesn't happen. The luster is already starting to leave. Pacquiao can't take a chance of fighting Marquez again and looking bad. He can't take a chance of fighting a Tim Bradley, a guy who brings nothing to the table anyway except he's going to make you look bad. That's the only thing he brings to the table. He can't take that kind of risk. I have read articles out there, and I don't know how true it is, but I see where they are saying Pacquiao can't fight in May because of some cut he had over his eye. How long is it going to take for his eye to heal? It don't take no half a year. Shit, Margarito had his damn orbital bone broke and he still fought within a certain timeframe. It didn't take the kind of timeframe they talking about.



[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]

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