Floyd Mayweather Needs to Leave Manny Pacquiao Allegations Alone

You would figure Floyd Mayweather should know better by now and just leave it alone. Yet the world’s best pound-for-pound fighter keeps going back—unable to slake this uncontrollable urge to allege Manny Pacquiao’s rise to fame came from certain little performance-enhancing helpers and that “Pac-Man’s” station has nothing to do with the dictum Mayweather has always promoted himself on: “hard work.”

Last Tuesday in New York, with a myriad of microphones thrust in his face and a media horde of all kinds leaning in to hear his every word, Mayweather went back on the offensive, venting about an issue he should have left alone when it comes to Pacquiao. It was a real head-scratcher that screamed-why?

During the first leg of the promotional tour, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, hyping the May 5 fight in Las Vegas between Mayweather and Miguel Cotto, “Pretty Boy” uttered “Floyd Mayweather is not a cheater like Antonio Margarito and Manny Pacquiao.” (h/t Mlive.com)

Mayweather further pushed his message on the tour’s second leg on Tuesday, in Harlem, New York at the legendary Apollo Theater, saying “You hear different things that the proof is in the pudding; I beat everyone they put in front of me and I didn’t cheat. People have called me afraid, that I’m a coward, the media says he’s this, he’s that, but Floyd Mayweather is a winner, and at the end of the day, Floyd Mayweather is not a cheater.”

When asked about what he foresees in the upcoming Tim Bradley-Pacquiao fight on June 9 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, for “Pac-Man’s” WBO welterweight world title, Mayweather couldn’t resist poking more jabs at his nemesis.

“I know Timothy Bradley is a very, very good boxer, and I don’t know if he has a great chin, but if I was Timothy Bradley, you know, I’d have Manny Pacquiao take a blood and urine test,” Mayweather said.

“I’m a smart individual, and I guess the media and the fans don’t see what Floyd Mayweather sees that goes on. Like I said before, I don’t have anything negative to say about Manny Pacquiao; it just seems so crazy that a guy can come up from a small weight and balloon up and just walk straight through guys like Miguel Cotto. It just seems crazy to me.”

It’s conjecture on Mayweather’s part that Pacquiao has used “helpers.” What’s fact is that Pacquiao has never tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs since his first fight in the United States, as a super bantamweight in June 2001 against Lehlo Ledwaba. He’s never tested positive for anything—period. Granted, Mayweather is correct that Pacquiao has climbed from a 106-pound strawweight to a 154-pound junior middleweight.

What’s lost here is that Pacquiao just turned 16 in December 1994 and his pro debut came in January 1995. He literally came off the streets of Manila subsisting on handfuls of food, without access to the kind of dietitians and training he has today. He was an adolescent when he turned pro, not 19, when Mayweather began his pro career. The other twist is when Mayweather was a 16-year old amateur, he fought at 106 pounds.

Pac-Man has found discipline under future Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach, who instilled in Pacquiao the ability to use both hands effectively. Pacquiao had a bad habit through the early portion of his pro career to “wander away” from training camp to hit a Filipino pool hall and play into the wee hours of the morning. That penchant has been staunched under Roach, who deserves as much credit for where Pacquiao is today as Pac-Man himself.

You want the drug that’s led Manny Pacquiao to where he is today—try a Roach clip, as in the tutelage of Freddie Roach.

Pacquiao, who’s been accused by the Mayweather camp of ducking the Olympic-style drug testing, had agreed to be tested—if a fight with Mayweather ever evolves.

In the meantime, it would be smart for Mayweather to keep quiet, since Pacquiao has a pending defamation suit against Mayweather for alleging Mayweather sullied his pristine reputation by supposedly saying Pacquiao’s success came from steroid abuse.

“I pray for him,” Pacquiao said in reference to Mayweather the previous week, announcing his fight with Bradley.

Mayweather needs to leave this toxic topic alone and maybe refer to someone close to find the reasons why. Commitment, hard work and an addiction to training have landed Floyd Mayweather on top of the boxing food chain. One look in the mirror will tell him why Pacquiao stands right there next to him.