Meralco Bolts team manager Paolo Trillo (left) says Floyd Mayweather Jr. wants to play one-on-one against Manny Pacquiao. Contributed Photo by Paolo Trillo
Floyd Mayweather Jr. beat Manny Pacquiao in the ring last May.
But what if the two take their rivalries into the basketball court?
According to Meralco Bolts team manager Paolo Trillo, who is with the team in Las Vegas as part of their training camp, the pound-for-pound king wants to challenge Pacquiao in a one-on-game of hoops.
Trillo said that while the Bolts were playing an exhibition game against a team composed of select NBA players and some US NCAA standouts, Mayweather, who just came from his official weigh-in for his fight against Andre Berto, showed up at the gym and started talking trash.
“I’ll play Manny for $2 million dollars,” Trillo, sharing his conversation with Mayweather, told INQUIRER.net in a phone interview Saturday. “And I was kidding him when I asked him ‘why, do you think you can take on Manny?’ And he goes, ‘how do you think I started out? I was playing basketball in the streets.'”
“He approached me and he was so funny and so talkative. And the whole time, we were all awestruck because it’s Mayweather,” Trillo added.
The Bolts played against the likes of Boston Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas, journeyman Keith Bogans, and New York Knicks big man Kyle O’Quinn and lost 96-90.
Trillo said Mayweather, who is good friends with Thomas, was trash talking the whole time he was at the gym.
“The players kept on looking and looking at him when he arrived, but they were eager to play because he kept trash talking,” Trillo said.
“The game was getting a bit physical, and Isaiah Thomas once or twice was complaining to the refs about our physicality because I think Kelly Nabong was setting hard screens, and it was Newsome who’s guarding him.”
Eventually, the Bolts’ play had caught the attention of Mayweather, who stayed true to his word by retiring after beating Berto in lopsided fashion that ran his perfect record to 49-0.
“After a while, he said, ‘hey, these guys can play.'”
In the end, though, Trillo said it was quite an experience for him and the whole team, which plays another game on Monday.
The Bolts arrived in Las Vegas on Sept. 2 and will be flying back home on Sept. 16. JE
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