Floyd Mayweather's Act Getting Old After Latest Spat with Manny Pacquiao

Floyd Mayweather really needs to stop talking and just fight Manny Pacquiao.

It’s time to put up or shut up, and this coming from someone who has been more friendly to Mayweather on the question of a Pacquiao fight than many others.

The pound-for-pound king is doing himself no favors by continuing to be dismissive of the potential for a fight, and his incessant trolling isn’t going to win anyone over to his cause that wasn’t already there.

The latest in his string of disrespect and vitriol toward Pacquiao appeared on his Twitter earlier Friday.

Let’s for a second ignore his derogatory reference to "Miss Pac Man" and whatever that reveals about his psyche. Nobody needs to be reminded again about Mayweather’s past history of domestic violence and his recent foot-in-mouth comments about the Ray Rice situation on that very subject.

Putting that aside, let’s just look at this from a pure boxing standpoint.

Mayweather fundamentally misses the point here.

He’s made a miscalculation.

His usually keen business mind has let him down.

This isn’t about Pacquiao.

No.

It’s about the fans. And they’re beyond the point of tired when it comes to the myriad reasons from all sides about why a fight matching the leading attraction of his era against his best contemporary won’t happen.

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The fans are over cute Internet memes. They’re over the "sleepio" comments and the sometimes funny—when not disparaging—attempts by Mayweather to deflect public interest for a fight in the ring by fighting on Twitter or Instagram.

In short, the fans are tired of being insulted, and that’s just what Mayweather has done here.

There really isn’t any good to rehashing the entire sordid history of the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao "rivalry," but suffice it to say that at times both men were intransigent and prevented the fight from happening.

But can any reasonable person, looking at the situation as it stands right now in 2014, conclude that the balance of blame hasn’t shifted to Mayweather?

Read that sentence again.

At the risk of being dubbed a Mayweather "hater" or any combination of derogatory Pacquiao-based nicknames, Floyd is the one who, at this point in time, has shown no interest in the fight.

Pacquiao has been the one pushing the narrative, repeatedly calling for the fight, while Mayweather presents a slew of illegitimate reasons why it can’t happen.

Let’s not pretend that legitimate ones don’t exist, but Pacquiao’s financial situation is beyond irrelevant. It has precisely zero to do with why the fight should or shouldn’t happen.

Pacquiao could be Warren Buffett or he could be broke, and it would have no relevance on why boxing fans want to settle this question, and Mayweather certainly knows that.

Mayweather has an unusual animus toward Pacquiao. It just seems like something about him gets under his skin in a way that no fighter in the ring has been able to do.

This isn’t the first time he’s taken to social media to bash the Filipino icon, and you can bet that it won’t be the last.

Maybe it’s the constant comparisons that irk him.

It could also be the repeated accusations of ducking—which in fairness are not always, well, fair—or the mere mention of Pacquiao as a contemporary who could possibly be, hold your breath, better than him.

You can understand his angst toward Bob Arum—the 82-year-old is polarizing and had an acrimonious split with Floyd some years back—but Pacquiao?

On this obviously personal level?

The whole concept seems to annoy him, and he’s allowed his personal feelings to cloud his professional and business judgment.

The realities of boxing shake out something like this: Mayweather is out of compelling opponents to face.

There’s a reason he stepped in with Marcos Maidana a second time rather than doing the Mayweather thing and finding something bigger and better.

He had no choice, or at least no other realistic option that was both possible and available.

John Locher/Associated Press

Mayweather drew in approximately 2.2 million pay-per-view buys for his superfight with Canelo Alvarez last September.

Both Maidana fights combined still came up short of that number.

Again, commercial successes by general boxing standards, but nowhere near the lofty expectations that Mayweather has set during his dominant run as boxing’s big-money attraction.

With two fights left on his huge contract with Showtime—after which he says he’ll retire—what remains compelling about Mayweather’s 2015 plans?

He could well be forced off his traditional Cinco de Mayo date by a potential Canelo vs. Miguel Cotto fight, and the Mexican superstar has already made rumbles about trying to take September’s Mexican Independence Day weekend from him as well.

And then there’s the question of who.

Who is left for him to fight?

Amir Khan?

Sure, why not?

Khan has a style that could give Mayweather some trouble—should his chin hold up—and his popularity in the United Kingdom could generate huge dollars if Floyd is willing to go across the pond.

Keith Thurman?

A young, rising star, yes, but what can he do in the next 12 or so months to make him the guy fans want Mayweather to fight?

You can scratch Canelo off the list by virtue of his long-term deal with HBO.

Not so much because the networks can’t get together—they did for Lennox Lewis vs. Mike Tyson and would have to for Mayweather vs. Pacquiao—but because of the hard feelings between Oscar De La Hoya and Stephen Espinoza of Showtime.

That leaves Pacquiao.

And it leaves no more excuses.

Floyd needs to get it done, because the look he’s giving right now just isn’t good for him.