Ranking the Best Lines of Trash Talk so Far Leading Up to Mayweather vs Pacquiao

Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao will finally meet Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas for a fight expected to produce unprecedented publicity for the sport of boxing.

Oh, and it's anticipated to generate hundreds of millions of dollars, as well. 

You'd have expected a fight with stakes this high, featuring personalities this potentially volatile, to be a smack-talk fest from the minute it was announced, but that hasn't been the case.

Far from it.

Mayweather set the tone early in the promotion, telling David Mayo of MLive.com that his days of berating opponents to sell a fight are over.

"At first, it was like, one way or another, by communication or by my boxing skills, you will watch me, you will see me, I will be seen. But I'm in a position now I don't have to do that," Mayweather said.

Very true, and you haven't heard much of anything from Mayweather himself on the subject.

But that doesn't mean there hasn't been trash talk from some of the many other interesting characters.

Let's take a look and rank the best of the best leading up to the big fight.

10. Manny Pacquiao/Leonard Ellerbe: Dueling Knockout Predictions

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Let's kick these festivities off with an easy one.

Knockout predictions happen so often in boxing that they're largely relegated to the realm of cliche. 

It's almost like a fight without one or both fighters promising that they'll put the other man to sleep isn't really worthy of the name. 

Both camps, at least through intermediaries, are predicting that a fight many fear will produce 12 rounds of technical snorefest—heaven forbid—will instead end early with one man on his back.

Mayweather hasn't knocked out a foe since Victor Ortiz in 2011—and we all know the dodgy circumstances of that one—but that isn't stopping Leonard Ellerbe, CEO of Mayweather Promotions, from calling this one:

"He [Mayweather] has to do what he normally does and go in there and execute his game plan, and I really expect Floyd to knock him out," Ellerbe said, per BoxingScene.com.

Not to be outdone, Pacquiao, at least as communicated by his trainer Freddie Roach, is predicting the exact same thing.

Pacquiao promised Roach, who was recently awarded a seventh Eddie Futch Award as trainer of the year by the Boxing Writers Association of America, an eighth because he's "going to knock Mayweather out," the Hall of Fame trainer said, per Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times.

Cliche?

Sure, but still fun, especially if one guy makes good.

9. Freddie Roach: "I Think Floyd Sr. Is a Terrible Cornerman."

Jae C. Hong/Associated Press

Roach is certainly the most outspoken cornerman in the game today.

So much so that Bleacher Report's Lyle Fitzsimmons dedicated a recent column to the Hall of Famer's ability to stir the pot as an antagonist before fights.

While Roach generally confines his razor-sharp quips for the fighter his man will face in the ring, it's sometimes the case that he points the dagger in the direction of the man who will work the corner opposite him on fight night.

"I think Floyd Sr. is a terrible cornerman. ... He gets so excited and worked up, and he starts to stutter so he can't give his fighter any useful information," Roach said, per Fitzsimmons on CBS Sports.

Ouch. Don't bank on Mayweather Sr. taking that smackdown without retort. 

Roach also gave a backhanded compliment to Mayweather Sr.'s brother, Roger Mayweather, for being a better trainer.

Mayweather Sr., an ornery fellow who doesn't take this type of stuff lying down, immediately fired back by referencing the Pac-Man's sensitive knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez.

"Of course, any time somebody's been knocked ice cold like that, man, of course they can get knocked out again—quick, fast and in a hurry," Mayweather Sr. said, per MLive.com (h/t CBS Sports).

Not stuff that will burn down the barn, but that's coming, too, don't you worry.

8. Freddie Roach: "I Really Don't Think He Wants This Fight."

John Locher/Associated Press

You'd probably need to clear a weekend—just not this one—if you wanted to sit down and count the number of times that members of Team Pacquiao accused the pound-for-pound king of not wanting to fight their man. 

The words "ducking," "protected" and even "afraid" were frequent parts of the lexicon of Bob Arum, Roach and many members of the boxing fandom inclined toward the Filipino's side of the argument.

Don't expect that stuff to stop now, even with the fight mere hours away.

Roach—spotting a trend here—took the opportunity to open that old wound, per Pugmire:

"I feel like they [Mayweather] don't want to be here.  ... I really don't think he wants this fight. He was forced into it by the public, the press and by Showtime."

That's a half-step short of a direct challenge to Mayweather's manhood. 

Them's fighting words in boxing.

Is that redundant?

Mayweather was pretty clear about his desire to face Pacquiao when he sat down—or in reality, stood up—with Steve Farhood in December and made his intentions public.

And the truth is that in the sordid road to Saturday night, both sides were culpable at one point or another for this not happening sooner.

It just seems that Roach isn't yet done reminding people where he places the majority of the blame.

7. Manny Pacquiao: "He's Afraid of Losing."

Jae C. Hong/Associated Press

Mayweather and Pacquiao were respectful to each other when they met in person to hype the fight at their lone press appearance March 11 in Los Angeles.

You didn't expect that to last, however, did you?

Pacquiao later appeared on ESPN's First Take program to answer questions about the fight, how it finally came together and why it took so long for the pound-for-pound icons to finally make the long-anticipated showdown a reality.

"He's [Mayweather] afraid of losing," Pacquiao said, in response to a question about the long delay in making the fight.

"In my mind, I was more worried about the fight when I fought [Oscar] De La Hoya and [Miguel] Cotto than this fight." 

There's a certain logic to that statement, even if it doesn't seem logical at first glance.

Pacquiao wasn't yet an international superstar when he fought De La Hoya and Cotto. Dominant victories in those fights are largely what propelled the Filipino to icon status and established him among the sport's pound-for-pound elites.

A loss to either man and it's possible that the entire Mayweather-Pacquiao story would never materialize. 

What happens if he loses now?

He has a lot less to lose than Mayweather and a lot less to lose than he did back then.

Or maybe, he's just trying to get in his foe's head.

6. Floyd Mayweather Sr.: "He's a Roach Blowing Smoke with No Hope."

Rick Bowmer/Associated Press

Mayweather Sr. didn't hide his disdain for Roach in an interview with Ben Thompson of FightHype.com:

"Stars hang out with stars. Freddie Roach is not a star. No celebrity wants to hang out with Freddie? Why? Because he's a roach. Who wants to hang out with the roach? He's a roach blowing smoke with no hope."

That makes the list mostly because that last line is oddly funny.

What's not funny is that it came after a slew of comments that seemed to poke at Roach for his ability to do his job effectively as a trainer with Parkinson's disease. 

That stuff is clearly not cool and is off limits, which is why we're not going to quote it here.

Or anywhere else, for that matter.

But a roach blowing smoke with no hope?

That's brilliant stuff from the elder Mayweather, even if we're not sure it makes much sense.

His son frequently appears with celebrities at his side—so long as you consider Justin Bieber to be a celebrity—and this has the feel of reinforcing one of the fundamental narratives to come from the Mayweather camp going back, well, to the start of this whole process.

There's an A-side and a B-side.

And Mayweather Sr. just wants to make sure you still remember which is which.

5. Leonard Ellerbe: "This Is a Lame-Ass Attempt to Generate Publicity."

Julie Jacobson/Associated Press

In March, during the early stages of promotion for this superfight, Pacquiao senior adviser Michael Koncz and Ellerbe engaged in some serious verbal fisticuffs over an issue that once upon a time derailed this fight.

The subject of drug testing has always been a sensitive one for Mayweather and Pacquiao.

Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports reported back in 2012 that the two sides came close to an agreement for a fight in 2010, but negotiations fell apart over Pacquiao's refusal to accept the drug-testing protocol.

He agreed to those terms some time later, and even sued Mayweather, settling out of court, for comments made that implied that he had taken performance-enhancing drugs.

The drug issue was resolved with relative ease this time around.

Both fighters are subject to strict, random testing before and after the fight.

Perhaps sensing an opportunity to go on the offensive with an issue that hasn't always been kindest to them, Koncz threw down a gambit to Floyd and his team, per Pugmire, requesting a $5 million fine for either fighter in the event of positive drug test.

That wasn't written into the contract, and it prompted a rather angry reply from Ellerbe, who called Koncz an "idiot" and described the move as a "lame-ass attempt to generate some publicity."

But Koncz wasn't done, openly pondering why if they "truly wanted to clean up the sport," they'd decline a penalty that would prove there's "nothing to hide."

Ellerbe had the upper hand here, largely because he was right on the nuts and bolts of the equation. This was an attempt to generate publicity and not a bad one in the court of public opinion. 

Whether it was wise to tinker with such a sensitive issue, given its derailing potential so close to the fight, remains a different question.

4. Freddie Roach: "Mayweather Is a Different 'A-Side' Now, and You Can Guess..."

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Let's get back to that A-side, B-side stuff we briefly referenced earlier.

Like a rock star who knows that the people are on a string, awaiting his every move and won't go anywhere before the show starts, Mayweather elected to show up to his open media workout at his Las Vegas gym about 2.5 hours late. 

You can do that sort of thing when you're Mayweather.

One guy who wasn't amused was Roach, who called Mayweather out for being selfish and promised his man would take that out on him on behalf of the boxing public.

"Mayweather is a different 'A-side' now, and you can guess what the 'A' stands for," Roach said, per Dan Rafael of ESPN.com. "When Manny beats Mayweather, it won't only be about unifying the welterweight titles, it will also be a public service to boxing."

Mayweather's polarizing nature has been documented by many a better writer than yours truly. And his flashy, me-first lifestyle is the type of thing you either love or hate. He's built himself up from the bottom, yes, and his brash way of flaunting what he has engenders envy, jealously or both in many fans.

Roach is clearly speaking to the people who are no fans of Mayweather, or The Money Team, or his in-your-face way of constantly reminding people that it's his world, and we are lucky just to live in it.

And that's a pretty large market.

3. Floyd Mayweather Sr.: "I Have to Say It Would Shock the S--t out of Me"

Isaac Brekken/Associated Press

Mayo of MLive.com asked Mayweather Sr. how he'd react if Pacquiao managed to beat his son Saturday night, and his response was vintage Mayweather—any or all of them.

"I'm gonna be honest with you, that would be a big ... I have to say it would shock the s--t out of me."

Equal parts confidence, condescension and genuine shock.

What would happen if Mayweather loses? I've never even thought about that!

The Mayweathers are a supremely confident clan—you may have noticed—and that confidence makes up a big part of Mayweather Jr.'s persona.

It's found in his 47-0 record, the frequent references to how many men have tried and failed to take his zero and a genuine belief that no man can take that from him in the ring.

Not Pacquiao.

Nobody.

They're not even letting the thought enter their minds.

2. Freddie Roach: "Good Against Evil."

Bullit Marquez/Associated Press

Roach makes another appearance on this list with comments made, per Martin Rogers of USA Today, about Mayweather's history of domestic violence and the motivation that provides for both him and his fighter ahead of Saturday.

"(I see the fight as) good against evil, yes. I have even thought about bringing a couple of the metro cops from Vegas in to tell Manny how many times (Mayweather) has been arrested and how bad of a guy he is, but I decided I can't go that far. He already doesn't like him; I think we are OK," Roach said.

"For the first time in my life with Manny Pacquiao, this is the first fighter he hasn't liked. I can tell."

Lacking the feel of traditional trash talk?

Maybe, but Roach, who has been a long-time activist against domestic violence and says he grew up in a home where his father hit his mother, didn't let that stop him from bringing up Mayweather's history of being on the wrong side of the law on that issue.

Daniel Roberts of Deadspin has been one of the few with the guts to tackle this issue extensively, and you can find his take right here.

Roberts mentions "at least seven separate physical assaults on five different women that resulted in arrest or citation." He pleaded guilty to a reduced misdemeanor charge back in 2012—felony charges could've carried a 34-year sentence—that resulted in a two-month stint in jail for attacking Josie Harris, the mother of three of his four children, in front of two of his sons.

This is obviously a sensitive subject, and one that should never be tolerated, and Roach isn't using it as a sweetener just to motivate his guy.

You can really believe him when he says that neither he nor his fighter like the man they'll be stepping into the ring with in just a couple of days. 

1. Floyd Mayweather Jr.: "No One Can Ever Brainwash Me ..."

John Locher/Associated Press

Mayweather has taken to marketing himself as TBE—The Best Ever—in recent years, and this writer, for one, happens to agree with him, at least partially.

The pound-for-pound king isn't the best fighter of all time—not to these eyes anyway and not close—but he's the best in boxing history at putting together the total package of in-ring skill and out-of-ring marketing that has generated record amounts of money and attention for the sport.

Mayweather sat down with ESPN's Stephen A. Smith (h/t Sporting News) in the lead up to the big fight and made a few statements, while not necessarily directed at Pacquiao, which amount to some all-time-level trash talk and all-time debatability. 

"

No one can ever brainwash me to make me believe that Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali was better than me. No one could ever brainwash me and tell me that. But one thing I will do, I'm going to take my hat off to them and respect those guys because those are the guys that paved the way for me to be where I'm at today.

"

Not buying it, but OK.

Comparing yourself to Ali and Robinson, and not only comparing but saying explicitly that you're better, is something that produces a ton of head scratching from boxing historians, fans and media. Everyone has an opinion, and some might even agree, but it's a stretch at best. 

One person who did, however, was former heavyweight champion and Ali knockout victim George Foreman.

"Pound for pound, Floyd is better than me and Muhammad Ali ever were," Foreman said in comments to TMZ (h/t CBS Sports).

Disagree, but Mayweather said it, Foreman agreed, and we have ourselves a serious contender for the best trash-talk line of the year or era.