MANILA, Philippines—Manny Pacquiao now has got Floyd Mayweather Jr. cornered.
Either the flamboyant American accepts Pacquiao’s irresistible offers on Thursday (Friday in Manila) for a bigger purse for Mayweather and random drug testing up to fight night or be branded as a coward.
Any other demand from Mayweather would earn him the same label that the unbeaten World Boxing Association super welterweight and World Boxing Council welterweight champion is really ducking Fighter of the Decade Pacquiao.
Not content with what he said on ESPN’s First Take, Pacquiao further embellished his concessions by telling publicist Fred Sternburg on Friday in Mexico City, where he and Juan Manuel Marquez held the final stop of their promotional tour for Pacquiao-Marquez IV, that Mayweather “can be introduced first, have top billing … he can wear my trunks.”
Pacquiao added that he no longer cares about Mayweather’s conditions for the megabuck bout that could reward both fighters $50 million each.
What Pacquiao said he wants is “to get him (Mayweather) in the ring.”
Rather than accept Pacquiao’s terms, Mayweather has chosen to remain silent, fueling speculations that he’s going to make another alibi just to avoid the world’s only eight-division champion.
Left to fend off the impact of Pacquiao’s pronouncement, Mayweather’s advisor, Leonard Ellerbe, told latimes.com that it should be the 35-year-old pound-for-pound king who should dictate the terms.
The more telling statement, however, was “if and when the fight takes place.”
Ellerbe also dismissed Pacquiao’s statement as an amateurish ploy to drum up interest for Pacquiao-Marquez IV.
Asked of his assessment of Mayweather’s antics by the First Take hosts, Pacquiao admitted that “I think it’s (Mayweather’s fear) kind of that.
Actually, Mayweather in an interview last year admitted that he fears losing to Pacquiao because it (boxing) is his main source of income.