TREVOR WITTMAN: “MAYWEATHER IS JUST TRYING TO GET INTO PACQUIAO'S HEAD”

“As far as the blood work, the rules are the rules. You don’t need to do any special blood testing. I think it’s a little bit of hype. I think Mayweather is just trying to get into Pacquiao’s head a little bit, like what we did to Rampage,” stated world-class MMA/boxing Trevor Wittman as he shared his thoughts on Floyd Mayweather’s demands for additional blood testing in a proposed bout with Manny Pacquiao. No stranger to the sport of boxing, Wittman was the long-time trainer of former jr. middleweight champion Verno Phillips and knows a thing or two about getting into the head of opponents. “Mayweather is really good at doing that. Although I don’t think they should change what the rules are and I think we should keep that intact, fight however you guys fight and just go out there and do it. I don’t think there should be any added blood work or anything like that,” he continued.

In fact, the effects of successfully getting inside an opponent’s head were on full display this past weekend when Rashad Evans, a mixed martial arts fighter that Wittman works with, defeated Quinton “Rampage” Jackson at UFC 114. According to Wittman, getting inside Jackson’s head was a calculated plan the moment the fight was announced. “When you go and watch a Primetime, there is a lot of build-up and a lot of talk and people expect fireworks. They want them to go out and street fight, but the thing is we wanted to go out there and talk as much as we can and get into his head and get him angry,” Wittman explained in an interview with FightHype’s own Percy Crawford. ”The thing that I was very excited about is that we were able to get Rampage angry and Rashad was able to stay loose and relaxed.”

Whether or not Mayweather is simply using the issue of random blood testing to gain a mental edge over Pacquiao remains to be seen, but judging from Wittman’s comments, it’s clear that a trainer will use whatever advantage he can get for his fighter. Let’s just hope that Mayweather realizes that it’s going to take a lot more than a mental edge to get a victory should he ever step into the ring with Manny Pacquiao.