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JEFF MAYWEATHER: "IT WAS AN EASY WIN...YOU CAN'T GET A WORD IN EDGEWISE WITH PACQUIAO'S FANS"

By Percy Crawford | November 18, 2010
JEFF MAYWEATHER:

"If Floyd was in there with Margarito, it would have looked almost the same except Floyd wouldn't have been hit at all. Margarito is way too slow. People get excited when they see Manny go to work and do his thing. And that's fine because all of that that he's doing, he's not doing it to Floyd, so it doesn't matter. Margarito is big and slow and you can see everything coming. I called that fight before it even happened. I knew Margarito was going into that fight feeling like he had something to prove, so he was going to lay it all on the line. All Manny had to do was pretty much what he did against De La Hoya; get in and get out and get some punches going. It was an easy win. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out. It's always something big when Manny does it, but Mosley knocked him out and dominated him too...But you can't get a word in edgewise with Pacquiao's fans," stated world-class trainer Jeff Mayweather, who shared his thoughts on Manny Pacquiao's unanimous decision victory this past Saturday. Despite the dominant win over Margarito, Jeff Mayweather seemed less than impressed with the performance. You don't want to miss what else he had to say about Pacquiao, his nephew Floyd, blood tests and much more.

PC: Manny Pacquiao utterly destroyed Antonio Margarito this past Saturday. Were there any surprises in that fight to you?

JM: No. No surprises at all. I called the fight exactly that way. I knew Margarito wanted to try to prove something and that's why he stayed in there. He wanted to get the boxing public to accept him and to forget about what he really done. And that's why he didn't give up because he knew he was better off taking unnecessary punishment to try to gain acceptance. He doesn't have many fans these days.

PC: As a trainer, at what point should Robert Garcia had stepped in, since the fighter wanted to continue?

JM: I think around the 8th round, the fight should have been stopped. I would have stopped it myself because, first of all, he can't really see. It wasn't just one eye, but it was both eyes that he had no vision in and if he did have vision, it was very little. He wanted to be able to say he made it the distance, but so what? Your pay is still the same whether you make it the distance or not.

PC: That beating couldn't have helped his career any as far as what he has left.

JM: No, it definitely couldn't help it. But like I said, here is a guy who is fighting for public approval. He's not fighting...him fighting to win was gone a long time ago. The fight went exactly like I thought it would. I know Margarito can't deal with movement and no one knows if he can punch at all anyway. Who knows how long he's had those wraps like that. There is no way to go back in time and look at these wins to see how long he has been doing it for.

PC: A lot of people were surprised to see Pacquiao come in so light. How do you think he's able to beat these bigger guys?

JM: The reality of why Pacquiao is able to do what he does is no secret. I mean, everyone knows why he's able to do what he does. Everyone got all excited like, "He's giving up 6 pounds." He can give up 15 pounds or 30 pounds, it doesn't matter. It makes no difference. At the end of the day, it's going to be a skilled fighter, not a bigger fighter, that's going to beat Pacquiao and it's going to be someone like Floyd that's going to demand some damn testing or the fight ain't going to happen. I mean, to me, it's funny for him to be doing all of that acting about Margarito and his wraps on 24/7, but he seems to forgot that when it was time to do the blood testing, he didn't jump up to do it. He doesn't want to take the blood test, and then Ariza says, "Oh, Manny doesn't even know what he takes. He takes whatever I give him." So all of a sudden, he wants to be the fall guy in case things don't go the way it's supposed to.

PC: It appears that Shane Mosley is aligning himself with Top Rank so that he can possibly be next in line for a fight with Pacquiao. Do you see the result of that fight being any different than what we seen last Saturday?

JM: I don't think that that fight will...first of all, I don't even think that fight will happen. It may happen, and the only reason it may happen is because of people saying that Pacquiao hasn't fought an African American yet. But fighting Shane is not like fighting Floyd. They are totally different fighters. Shane proved in his last fight that he's not the same fighter. Beating him doesn't mean nothing. They would be catching Shane at a time where...after the fight with Floyd, and then Sergio Mora, not many people is going to give Shane a chance in hell. Don't get me wrong, even at this age, Shane is still dangerous, but I don't think he can match up with Pacquiao. I think it will be a more entertaining fight than the Margarito fight, and Shane could even have some moments in the fight, but I don't think he's going to win.

PC: Pacquiao is destroying guys, there is no denying that. Do you tip your hat to him at all or do you surround his wins with asterisks?

JM: I put asterisks by them. We're talking about a guy that, depends on who you are talking to, got beat two times by Marquez. But yet, all of a sudden now, he starts dogging guys that are much bigger than him. Why didn't he do that to Marquez back then?  Marquez is a much smaller guy and if you are knocking out these guys, there aint no way he wouldn't have knocked out Marquez. I don't care how tough he is. You guys did 24 rounds together and he dropped him 4 times in those 24 rounds and they are only separated by a point, and now, all of a sudden, he is stopping these bigger dudes? It's one of those situations where you're never going to have an answer, the real answer, about that situation. If he is willing to take the test and he comes out on top, then you gotta take your hat off to him, or he slips through the cracks. But if he's not willing to take the test, you're always gonna have asterisks in anything that he does. And then you have to put asterisks because he's fighting at catchweights. And then he's coming in way under the weight that he's supposed to fight at. He basically put on a few pounds overnight, but in reality, both guys were under the junior middleweight limit. And then you got fans saying, "He's won 8 titles in 8 divisions." Floyd could have won his 7th title if he wanted to. It would be easy for him to go and pick anybody and win 8 titles. That's nothing. Once you get to a level and you become bigger than the sport itself, where basically you're in a position to be able to say I want to fight at a catchweight or do this or do that, that means you transcended the sport. You are changing the rules of the game, so I mean, Floyd can do the same thing, but he chose not to. When he fights, he fights that person at that weight. Whoever the champion is, he fights that person at that weight. You can make some of these guys do anything and they are willing to accept it.

PC: Floyd is going through some legal stuff right now, but do you realistically see the fight between him and Pacquiao happening in 2011?

JM: I think that it's a situation in which...Floyd kinda made himself the villain. Because he made himself the villain, a lot of things that he does, especially the legal stuff that's going on with him now, the people love it. Manny plays the role of a good guy, so it's almost like good vs. evil when the fight happens; or if it happens. But the reality is this, the fight hasn't happened because of Manny Pacquiao, not Floyd Mayweather. Floyd met all of Manny's demands: glove size, ring size and a stipulation where he had to pay for every pound he came in over 147. I think Teddy Atlas put it best the other day and he said, "The reason the fight is not happening isn't because of Floyd, but it's because of Manny Pacquiao." it's one of those situations where, if you don't have anything to hide, take the test. It's that simple. This fight could have happened and people could already be talking about who the best is, but they don't want to talk about why the fight ain't happening. Instead, they watch Manny dismantle this guy and dismantle this guy and say, "Floyd is scared of him." But not once did Floyd not step up to the plate and say, "Let's fight."

PC: Does it make you upset when you see someone in Michael Wilbon's position call Floyd a coward?

JM: Well, I mean, when people do that, they are just complete assholes. Floyd ain't scared of Manny and Manny ain't scared of Floyd. The reason why the fight is not happening is because one guy is not willing to take the blood test. And don't get me wrong, that's his prerogative. If you don't want to take the blood test, then you don't want to take it. Then that's just like refusing the fight because if you're not going to meet my demands, I'm not going to meet your demands and the fight's not going to happen. At the end of the day, that's what it boils down to. All of that coward this and coward that, that's all BS because that don't mean nothing. I mean, there are 40 guys that stepped in there with Lil Floyd and none of them won, so he ain't gonna be scared of this little midget.

I saw something on my Facebook today where Ariza called Shane Mosley a quitter. So wait a second, Shane Mosley has fought the best fighters there is in the world at their weight; no catchweight. He's fought all of the best fighters in the world in their respective weight and still ain't never been stopped. Manny Pacquiao got stopped at 112 pounds twice and you want to call this guy a quitter? That guy is a clown.

PC: So you still can't see any scenario where Manny beats your nephew?

JM: No. If Floyd was in there with Margarito, it would have looked almost the same except Floyd wouldn't have been hit at all. Margarito is way too slow. People get excited when they see Manny go to work and do his thing. And that's fine because all of that that he's doing, he's not doing it to Floyd, so it doesn't matter. Margarito is big and slow and you can see everything coming. I called that fight before it even happened. I knew Margarito was going into that fight feeling like he had something to prove, so he was going to lay it all on the line. All Manny had to do was pretty much what he did against De La Hoya; get in and get out and get some punches going. It was an easy win. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out. It's always something big when Manny does it, but Mosley knocked him out and dominated him too.

But you can't get a word in edgewise with Pacquiao's fans. Floyd is playing the role of the villain and that's why when you say something about Manny you gotta be a Manny fan or fuck you. Your opinion don't even matter. Manny got the world captivated right now; all eyes on him. Like I said, he's playing the role of the good guy, so of course people are going to gravitate towards him and they are going to go against Floyd playing the villain.



[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]

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