Mayweather slams Pacquiao's technique, claims fans love him more
In an interview with Ben Thomson of FightHype, Floyd Mayweather lambasted Manny Pacquiao’s boxing skill and even claimed that fans love him more than the Filipino pugilist.
“It’s not called slugging; it's called boxing. I mean, that's what happened in the [Juan Manuel] Marquez fight. You was [sic] trying to play tough guy and we see what happened. It's about working smarter, not harder,” Mayweather said.
“When he was fighting Brandon Rios, he wasn't slugging. He was boxing. It's obvious he must know that he's not going to win. He feels that in his heart. Like every other fighter trying to bait me into slugging, that's not going to happen. Even though I know I'm bigger and I'm stronger than him, and I'm smarter than him, we don't believe in taking no punishment.”
The undefeated American added that he sees himself as an artist in the ring.
“The cool thing about Floyd Mayweather's career is I was able to dish out punishment, not take punishment, make a lot of money, and have all my faculties. That's the cool thing about my career,” he added. “What's so crazy is they're always talking about Floyd Mayweather fights are boring. I mean, it's an art and last time I checked, I'm an artist and I paint a beautiful picture. A bloody mouth, a bloody nose, cut lip, broken ribs; that's not beautiful on me.”
Pacquiao has often said that he wants to fight Mayweather for the fans. The eight-division world champion even added that he’d fight Mayweather for charity if need be.
“Listen, I'm truly, truly blessed to be where I'm at and I'm very thankful for the fans. He's talking about the fans this and the fans that. It's obvious the fans must love me more because the pay-per-view numbers are showing who's getting the most love,” Mayweather countered.
“I mean, of course I'm only human, so every day I come out of my house, I don't always want to take pictures, but I do appreciate the fans because without the fans, we wouldn't be where we're at today. I don't like when people say stuff like, "I'm doing it just for the fans." No, you're doing it for yourself. If you're doing it just for the fans, then you can give the money back to the fans if that was the case. You want to please the fans, but you're not just doing it for the fans. You're doing it for yourself also.”
After Pacquiao issued a challenge to Mayweather after beating Chris Algieri, Mayweather responded that he wants the mega-fight to happen on May 2 but added that he wants a bigger piece of the pot.
“I mean, if he wanna [sic] fight for free, he can. I'm not fighting for free,” Mayweather closed. “Once again, I'm a prize fighter. I fight for a prize, and I'm the A side so I'm always going to get the biggest prize.”
