Manny Pacquiao. AP FILE PHOTO
Manny Pacquiao feels he has Floyd Mayweather Jr. trapped in a corner this time. The unbeaten American needs to back up his words and fight him next year, he says.
“He (Mayweather) has reached a dead end. He has nowhere to run but to fight me,” Pacquiao, reacting to Mayweather’s offer to fight him in May, told AFP yesterday.
To prevent a repeat of Mayweather’s boring victory over Argentine Marcos Maidana, Pacquiao said he intends to bring the fight to the American.
Pacquiao said he will use his 12-round demolition of erstwhile unbeaten Chris Algieri in Macau last month as a blueprint of his strategy against Mayweather (See related story on A1).
Mayweather, though, is giving signals that the negotiations for the prospective billion-dollar bout won’t be easy. He has said he will demand a much bigger share of the fight’s purse.
“Mayweather can get the amount he wants,” Pacquiao said. “As early as January this year, I challenged him to a charity fight. Until now, he has not agreed to it. So, money is not the issue in our fight.”
And if the blockbuster bout pushes through, Pacquiao already has a fight plan in mind. The eight-division world champion said he knows what to do against Mayweather if they finally meet in the ring.
“I will chase him wherever he goes just in case he decides to run,” Pacquiao said. “We will devise a good fight plan against him.”
Familiar with Mayweather’s style, Pacquiao doubts whether his pound-for-pound rival will trade punches with him.
“I will try my best to [make] this a thrilling and entertaining fight. But I doubt if he’s going to engage me in a slugfest,” said Pacquiao, who accepted Mayweather’s offer—made on Showtime Sports in the US Friday night—to fight him on May 2 in the United States.
Pacquiao took a swipe at Mayweather’s failure to excite the crowd when he’s in the ring.
“You all know his fighting style,” Pacquiao said from his mansion in General Santos City. “Most, if not all, of his previous fights induced us to sleep.”