FightHype.com

FLOYD MAYWEATHER: "I ONLY WANT ONE PERSON, PACQUIAO...WHY IS HE DUCKIN' AND DODGIN' ME"

By Ben Thompson | January 13, 2012
FLOYD MAYWEATHER:

"I don't want to fight nobody else but him. Nobody! I want him. I don't want to fight Cotto. Not Canelo. And I ain't looking to fight Marquez a second time. Nobody! I want him! I only want one person, Pacquiao...It could be Cotto, it could be Canelo, but I'm not trying to fight either one of them. May 5th, I'm looking to fight Manny Paquiao. Why is he duckin' and dodgin' me? I mean, you say you're a clean athlete, I'm a clean athlete, let's take the tests and let's fight. Like I said before, May 5th, sure, it could be Cotto, or it could be Canelo, but I don't want to fight them. I don't want to fight nobody but one person, Manny Pacquiao. That's the only one I want to fight. Right now, my team may be looking for me to fight one of the other top guys out there, but I'm looking to fight one person...Everybody knows that all my business is handled in a professional manner. I got people that work for me that handle my business. Everybody knows that Al Haymon is my go-to guy," stated undefeated WBC welterweight and pound-for-pound champion Floyd Mayweather, who talked about his strong desire to face WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao when he makes his return to the ring on May 5. You do not want to miss what else he had to say. Check it out!

BT: What's up Champ?

FM: What's going on Ben?

BT: Actually, it seems like a lot has been going on over the past few days ever since you called out Pacquiao on Twitter.

FM: The thing is this, I'm ready to fight May 5th.

BT: Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like Pacquiao is ready to fight May 5th. I'm not sure if it's because of the cut he...

FM: (Cutting in) I got cut in my last fight. I got a hole knocked in my face.

BT: (Laughing) I know. According to Arum though, there's a number of reasons why. First he said Pacquiao's cut wouldn't allow him to spar until April. Then he said he wanted to build a temporary outdoor stadium for the fight to maximize profits, but it wouldn't be ready in time for a May 5th fight. Now he says they need more time to promote the fight.

FM: Man, this fight is already sold, you know? The fight is already sold. All he gotta do is sign on the dotted line. I'm ready. He said he's ready to take the random blood and urine tests. I mean, his manager, what's his name?

BT: Michael Koncz?

FM: Yeah, Michael Koncz said he agreed to doing it. Like I said before, Floyd Mayweather don't want to fight nobody but one person. I don't want to fight nobody else but him. Nobody! I want him. I don't want to fight Cotto. Not Canelo. And I ain't looking to fight Marquez a second time. Nobody! I want him! I only want one person, Pacquiao!

BT: I was going to ask you about some of those names that you just mentioned. There's been a lot of speculation as to who you might actually face on May 5th, assuming it's not Pacquiao. Names like Robert "The Ghost" Guerrero...

FM: (Cutting in) I don't even know who "The Ghost" is. I don't even know who that dude Guerrero is. That didn't come from me. I'm not trying to fight Guerrero. I fought a southpaw; I fought Ortiz. Ortiz was a tune-up preparing me for Pacquiao because I thought that the fight was going to happen and that's the fight that I want to give to the world.

BT: Miguel Cotto and Saul "Canelo" Alvarez were also names rumored to be in the mix with Guerrero to get the opportunity. Have you actually considered any of those names?

FM: Like I said before, I recently heard about this guy, Guerrero "The Ghost", whatever, I wish him nothing but the best, but I'm not fighting no Guerrero "The Ghost" because I don't even know who he is. If I did have to fight Cotto, they're going to say I'm fighting Pacquiao's leftovers. I'm not saying Cotto is not a good fighter or he's not solid. To me, I think he's talented. If I'm not mistaken, back when Cotto fought Pacquiao, he fought him at a catchweight. You know me, if I was to fight Cotto, I'm not fighting him at no catchweight, but I don't want to fight him. Canelo, they'll say he don't have enough experience. It could be Cotto, it could be Canelo, but I'm not trying to fight either one of them. May 5th, I'm looking to fight Manny Paquiao. Why is he duckin' and dodgin' me? I mean, you say you're a clean athlete, I'm a clean athlete, let's take the tests and let's fight. Like I said before, May 5th, sure, it could be Cotto, or it could be Canelo, but I don't want to fight them. I don't want to fight nobody but one person, Manny Pacquiao. That's the only one I want to fight. Right now, my team may be looking for me to fight one of the other top guys out there, but I'm looking to fight one person.

BT: I think you've made that pretty clear over the past few days, but all of them - Arum, Pacquiao, Koncz, and even Todd [DuBoef] - are saying that they're not sure who to speak with on your team in order to negotiate.

FM: Everybody knows that all my business is handled in a professional manner. I got people that work for me that handle my business. Everybody knows that Al Haymon is my go-to guy. What's that guys name again, his manager?

BT: Michael Koncz.

FM: Michael Koncz came to my boxing gym to tell me that Bob Arum is not in control. He gonna tell me, "Bob Arum don't have nothing to do with this at all." He basically said that Bob Arum is out of there; that Bob Arum is not in control, but he [Koncz] is in control. Then the next time I asked him about Bob Arum, he said, "Let me handle Bob." Come on, man, which one is it, let you handle Bob or he's under control? He said, "Don't worry about nothing. Bob Arum listens to me." Which one is it, Bob Arum listens to you, or Bob Arum is not in control? He came to the gym with a few different people, Joe Jackson and some other people, but like I said before, he told me me Manny Pacquiao would take the tests, random blood and random urine. Once he told me that, I said, "Yo, we can make the fight happen." Then I told him, "How can y'all even negotiate a fight if y'all got a lawsuit against me. If it's defamation of character, why are y'all even coming to the gym to negotiate?" I said, "I want to fight him, but before y'all can even negotiate the fight, drop the lawsuit so I know y'all serious." It's obvious they're not serious because they didn't drop the lawsuit.

BT: Yo, speaking of Koncz and these investors, I was actually contacted by one of them who explained their offer to me. I was kind of surprised to hear that they were going to break Bob Arum off with like $40 million of his own.

FM: Anybody that's bringing investors to the table are probably trying to take money from people. It's no different than Bob Arum trying to cut a side deal with some investors and saying something like, "Pay me $40 million, give it to me, and I'll step aside and let y'all do the rest." In my opinion, Michael Koncz probably brought the investors because he's trying to put something together so he can get money behind Manny Pacquiao's back. There's so many different people they're getting involved with; so many different investors. First there were these investors, right? Then there's some other investors. Some guy came to my house the other day. My Uncle Roger brought some guy over to my house the other day from Dubai, and I told him, "No disrespect, but to my recollection, Bob Arum is Manny Pacquiao's promoter." He told me, "I'm in control now." I said, "Well, if you're in control, you have to talk to Al Haymon." I shook his hand and I said, "I will be over to Dubai soon and we can go sit, have dinner, and go enjoy the nightlife, but as far as negotiating boxing, any contracts or any numbers, I have a professional business partner/adviser named Al Haymon that handles that."

BT: Ah, that explains where Arum got his story about you supposedly meeting with investors this week. Well the latest coming from them is that they're willing to fight in late May, but they say you're going to have to find someone to guarantee your purse, and it sounds like Arum and Koncz still want that temporary stadium to generate an extra $40 million in profit.

FM: Now let's get this straight, if there's $40 million, that's probably money he owes Pacquiao on the backend. Y'all talking about $40 million? I'll be honest, I was guaranteed way more than that on the first go around [of negotiations]. How can a fighter that's supposed to be making eight figures...I mean, from what I'm hearing, he made, what, $6-$6.5 million?

BT: I believe that's what was on his bout contract, $6.5 million, but he was supposed to be guaranteed like $20 million, or something like that.

FM: How can a fighter who's making $6.5 million even negotiate with a fighter of this magnitude, you know what I'm saying? Bob Arum is talking about he gotta pay Pacquiao. Listen, Floyd Mayweather can make $50 million with a cab driver. In my last two fights, I made more money than Pacquiao made in his whole fucking career. Talking about can't nobody guarantee him $40 million. I made more than $40 million with Ortiz. Like I said before, Bob Arum is lying about that. All he did for years was tell people that I'm scared. Okay, he said I'm scared? Well why was he [Pacquiao] scared to take the tests. For two years he didn't want to take the tests. If he's going to take the tests, okay, let's fight. In my opinion, what they've been doing the whole time was piggybacking off my name and lying to the public, telling the public that I don't want to fight when it's really that Bob Arum don't want to put him in there to take that chance because that's his cash cow. He don't have Cotto no more, so if Pacquiao loses, he won't have no crazy revenue no more. Basically, that's what's been going on. You can call me whatever you want to call me, but I ain't no cheater and I ain't no loser.

All I'm asking is one thing, let's give the fans what they want to see. I want to take the tests; he said he's going to take the tests. This sport is too tainted. Everybody is cheating. They putting stuff in their wraps, they cheating with the gloves, everything. And guess what? What I believe in my heart is the majority of the cheating is going on in my weight class. No wonder Antonio Margarito was trying to fight me so bad. Everybody talking about I was scared of him. All the fighters they say I'm scared of are all Top Rank fighters. When I was with Top Rank, I was never scared of no Top Rank fighters. When I was with Top Rank, I fought all the best fighters that they had, but they didn't want to let me get the fight with De La Hoya because, at that particular time, that was their cash cow and they didn't want to risk their cash cow losing. It's the same thing going on with the Pacquiao situation right now. Cotto is gone, so they got one left. Bob Arum would probably take the fight if he could get $30 million in his pocket. I mean, how much more money do these promoters want to take from fighters? Ain't these promoters tired of taking from fighters? With Mayweather Promotions, what we truly believe is treating the fighters fair. We want to make money, but we want the fighter to make money also. That's one thing I do like about Richard Schaefer. Richard Schaefer believes in Golden Boy making money, but he also believes in his fighters making money.

BT: I hear it getting busy on your end so I won't hold you up any longer. Is there anything else you want me to get out there for you?

FM: I was planning on doing a huge show February 24th on my birthday, but I had to push that back because of the case. But Jesse Vargas moving up to welterweight, that's a great thing, and I just signed Deandre Latimore, so we got some huge things going on. And once again, I'm Floyd Joy Mayweather and my daddy is Floyd Mayweather, so I'm not no junior. I wish they would stop saying that. Tell people to stop doing that. He's Floyd Mayweather and I'm Floyd Joy Mayweather. That was my father's boxing name. I got his boxing name. His name is Floyd Mayweather and I'm Floyd Joy Mayweather.

[Legal waiver: By copying or using any quotes from this interview, you agree to give full credit to FightHype.com by providing a link back to the original interview.]



[ Follow Ben Thompson on Twitter @fighthype ]

MARCH 18, 2024
MARCH 17, 2024
MARCH 14, 2024
MARCH 12, 2024
MARCH 11, 2024
MARCH 07, 2024
MARCH 04, 2024
FEBRUARY 29, 2024
FEBRUARY 27, 2024
FEBRUARY 22, 2024
FEBRUARY 19, 2024
FEBRUARY 15, 2024
FEBRUARY 12, 2024
FEBRUARY 08, 2024
FEBRUARY 05, 2024
FEBRUARY 01, 2024
JANUARY 31, 2024
JANUARY 30, 2024
JANUARY 29, 2024
JANUARY 25, 2024
JANUARY 22, 2024
JANUARY 18, 2024
JANUARY 15, 2024
JANUARY 12, 2024
JANUARY 11, 2024
JANUARY 08, 2024
JANUARY 04, 2024
JANUARY 01, 2024