Most in the boxing community naturally assumed that after Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. ducked each other this latest time around, they would stop with the back-and-forth for a while. Sure, reporters and fans would no doubt bring the pair's history up whenever possible, but Pacquiao and Mayweather shouldn’t really have anything left to say on the matter of a potential superfight. Their actions (not fighting) have spoken volumes.
Apparently they still have something to say, though.
During a recent interview with Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports, Pacquiao opened up about how insulting Mayweather’s $40 million superfight offer was. In his version of the story, the deal posed to him was for $40 million and no pay-per-view dough. Considering the fact that a bout between the top two pound-for-pounders in the world could generate upwards of $150 million, you can’t really blame the Filipino champion for being hesitant to get ripped off.
“He offered me $40 million, and no pay-per-view [money],” Pacquiao said. “No pay-per-view. Can you believe that? Would you do that? Come on. What would he say if I offered him $50 million – not $40 million, $50 million – and said ‘No pay-per-view. Take this money and be happy, but no pay-per-view.’ He wouldn’t do it, either.”
And the rest is history. Pacquiao rejected his arch rival’s ridiculous offer, Mayweather moved on to Miguel Cotto, and Pacquiao agreed to a June 9 bout versus fellow Top Ranker Timothy Bradley. As swiftly as hope regarding fight of the decade grew, it turned into disappointment twice as quickly.
Of course, in that same interview, Pacquiao was also careful to avoid admitting that he once promised Mayweather the larger portion of the purse if the undefeated champion agreed to fight him. Somehow, that minor detail never gets brought up anymore whenever talk turns to what an ideal Pacquiao versus Mayweather purse split would be.
The truth is that Pacquiao made that overture when he thought Mayweather was ducking him. At that point, he was just taunting his undefeated rival. Then when Mayweather called his bluff, Pacquiao’s “you can take the lion’s share” spiel suddenly turned into “I want half.”
Again, nobody is denying that Pacquiao deserves a 50-50 split and that Mayweather’s purported offer was all sorts of ridiculous. Rather, it’s just funny that Pacquiao would dangle the possibility of giving Mayweather more than 50-50, only to pull that proposal back when Mayweather finally got around to accepting it.
But that’s all water under the bridge now. We know the history of what happened, and everyone has their own take on it. Plus, given the fact that both fighters have proven themselves to be entirely untrustworthy with their contradicting tales of their negotiating history, arguing over details nobody is really sure of is a waste of time.
Pacquiao and Mayweather have both made their beds. They decided not to fight each other this Spring. Fine. So let’s move on. Let’s all move on. Starting with the two drivers of this clown car. Pacquiao should stop talking about Mayweather and Mayweather should stop talking about Pacquiao. Both guys have new opponents to worry about, and all rehashing old history does is remind fans that the fights we ended up with are the fights we never actually wanted.
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