Floyd Mayweather says he made the long-awaited fight with Manny Pacquiao
Thursday 12 March 2015 10:50, UK
Floyd Mayweather insists he always wanted to face Manny Pacquiao and claims he had the final say on the mega-fight going ahead.
After months of negotiations, the long-awaited showdown between the two biggest stars in boxing will finally take place in Las Vegas on May 2.
Previous attempts to match the American with his pound-for-pound rival Pacquiao had fallen apart after rows about purse splits and blood testing.
Everyone wants to keep talking about how this fight happened. This fight happened because of me.
But Mayweather has dismissed claims he tried to avoid the Filipino fighter and suggested he played a decisive role in the agreement between both camps.
“A lot of times you hear certain things from the media, certain things from the critics, the writers that are not true, that’s totally false,” he told SHO Sports.
“We tried to make this fight happen in the past. The teams kept bumping heads because of random blood and urine testing, then about being the A-side and who’s going to be the B-side.
“So, it was a lot of problems in the past. We finally resolved everything, the teams got on the same page and we made the fight happen.
“Everyone wants to keep talking about how this fight happened. This fight happened because of me. This fight didn’t happen because of Manny Pacquiao - because I asked for the fight myself.
“We had to choose an opponent for May and I said what better opponent to choose - and so we chose Pacquiao.”
Pacquiao has vowed to produce a knockout win in front of the worldwide audience, while trainer Freddie Roach made a crude prediction at the press conference.
But Mayweather refused to be drawn into an early war of words, drawing attention instead to his multiple world title wins and his 47-fight unbeaten record.
"I just feel that everyone is entitled to their own opinion," said the 38-year-old. "My job is just to be Floyd Mayweather and stay focused on the positive things.
"When a fight presents itself, go out there and do what I do best. Let’s go out there and win, be smart.
"I don’t focus on that, not at all. I know what I can do. I know what I bring to the table and what I bring to the sport of boxing.
"To be the face of boxing and to do so many record breaking things. It’s all about staying relaxed and staying focused."
