Listen again, please: “If the Pacquiao fight materializes, let’s make it happen.”
That was the supremely evasive Floyd Mayweather Jr. making a startling declaration on the century’s most elusive boxing bout.
Yes, Mayweather really said that after the final bell of his ho-hum second meeting with wild Marcos Maidana of Argentina.
It was totally unexpected, and all of us have every reason to be very excited.
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But hold it for another moment.
Did they, for example, watch from which side of his mouth the intractable Mr. Mayweather spoke?
It was no slip of the tongue, indeed.
However, the wily Floyd Jr. would not be caught saying that line again.
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Down at the press conference proper, moments after that unexpected burst on top of the ring, Mayweather made a more emphatic statement.
“We don’t know what the future holds,” Mayweather declared as he showed up in a hooded gym jacket, again playing possum, refusing to be pinned down on something he actually didn’t mean to say.
Yes, it will happen—if it materializes.
But how do you expect the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight to happen when, in a snap, the unbeaten world welterweight champion again didn’t want to have anything to do with it?
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You can’t call that a complete turnaround.
At the same time though, we’re all caught in the same corner, wondering what Mayweather honestly wanted.
He said he didn’t know who he’ll be fighting after he’s done resting for the rest of the year.
He said they’re not sure what the game plan is.
“What’s realistic is I’m 47-0,” Mayweather declared.
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At least, Pacquiao, all used to this empty talk, has remained unfazed.
The least said about Mayweather’s very rich blabber, the better.
Pacquiao has a more pressing concern.
How to make his WBO welterweight crown defense against tall, unbeaten American Chris Algieri exciting—and for it not to sink into a sickening mismatch as honestly feared.