FLOYD MAYWEATHER JR.: "PACQUIAO WILL NEVER GET 50/50"

By Ben Thompson

During a recent online chat, Floyd Mayweather Jr. answered questions posed to him from a couple of his fans. Although the majority of the conversation revolved around recent comments made by Shane Mosley, Mayweather did take time out to address the possibility of a potential clash with Manny Pacquiao. "Pacquiao will never get 50/50. It'll be a cold day in hell before that happens," Mayweather stated when asked about the possibility of an even split of the purse.

With that kind of attitude, it seems highly unlikely that a clash between the two best fighters in the sport will happen any time soon. Promoter Bob Arum and trainer Freddie Roach have made it clear that they consider Manny Pacquiao to be the number one guy and the top draw in the equation. "60/40 our way will work. 60/40 his way, it's not happening," Roach would tell Brian Kenny during a recent interview. Mayweather, on the other hand, sees otherwise.

"He's a very good fighter who has a promoter and a trainer that are doing all the talking for him. I ain't heard Pacquiao mention my name one time. Why? He knows that he would get his ass torn out the frame fighting me. His promoter is jockeying for position to set his guy up, but that would never work with us. We deal with facts. When he fought Oscar, he did 1.25 [million]. When I fought Oscar, we did 2.5 [million]. Against Hatton, they did 800 [thousand] and change. I did 930 [thousand] for the same fight. I did over a million in the UK and they did less than half of that," Mayweather continued as he explained his reasoning for demanding the bigger share of the purse.

While Mayweather's unwillingness to do a 50/50 split of the purse seems selfish and unfair to fans looking forward to the biggest fight in boxing, he does bring up some valid points. The numbers don't lie, which is probably the reason why Arum is reluctant to reveal the actual PPV numbers from Pacquiao's fight with Hatton. Still though, it's unclear as to which fighter is truly the bigger draw as they both needed Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton, two stars with their own huge fanbase, in order to generate such lofty numbers. read more