By Rick Reeno
On Tuesday, during an interview with select members of the press, Floyd Mayweather Jr. lashed out at Manny Pacquiao and his promoter, Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum.
Mayweather held nothing back on the subject of Pacquiao and performance enhancing drugs. Mayweather explained his doubts about the legit nature of Pacquiao's recognized success in multiple weight divisions. He feels strongly that Pacquiao has used and/or is using performance enhancing drugs.
Pacquiao still has an ongoing defamation suit against Mayweather in Las Vegas. In the legal papers, the Filpino boxer claims Mayweather tarnished his image by allegedly stating in several interviews that he was using/used performance enhancing drugs.
"Where was Manny Pacquiao at 96? He was a pro before me. Where was he in 97? Where was he in 98? Where was he all these years? All I'm doing is just asking a question. Come on, it's basic common sense now. And guess what, it took me years to get to here. It took me years to get here. Go back and look at the pictures. His head is small and then all of a sudden his head just grew? Come on man, stop this. Ray Charles can see this sh*t. Go back and look at the pictures and tell me this man's head didn't get bigger. You're going to tell me this sh*t is all natural. Come one man, stop," Mayweather said.
"I'm going up in weight but I'm not just walking through no damn fighters. This motherf***er was 106 [when he started] and he's just walking through [Miguel] Cotto. And Cotto can't knock down [Shane] Mosley, but he can? Come on man."
Bob Arum spoke with BoxingScene.com, and believes he knows the exact reason for Mayweather's recent tirade on Pacquiao. In the past interviews, Arum has always stated that Mayweather strategically waits until the week of his fight to take public shots against Pacquiao.
In the opinion of Arum, Mayweather is venting his jealous frustrations over the commercial Pacquiao recently shot for Hennessy.
"This time he is even more rambunctious, and my theory is the following. You know that he's a basketball nut. He watches all of the NBA playoffs. And every playoff telecast has a commercial with Hennessy, relating to Manny Pacquiao. And it shows Manny Pacquiao as a young guy starting out and it shows Manny Pacquiao as he is today," Arum told BoxingScene.com.
"So, he and his buddies are sitting around and they look at that, and they look at his head when he was starting out and look at his head now - not realizing the commercial was shot six months ago and the young Pacquiao is not Pacquiao - it's an actor playing Pacquiao. Otherwise why would he come up with something like that?"
Regarding former champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (21-0, 16KOs), Mayweather was very vocal about the ongoing legal situation between the Cuban fighter and Top Rank.
In March, Top Rank filed a federal lawsuit in the state of Nevada against Gamboa. The promotional company is seeking to recover damages due to an alleged "breach of contract" by Gamboa.
Gamboa, moving up by two weight divisions, was scheduled to fight Brandon Rios (30-0-1, 22KOs) in an HBO televised main event on April 14th at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. However, Gamboa no-showed press conferences in Miami and Los Angeles - and he refused to move forward with the fight, citing differences with his promoters Top Rank and Ahmet Oner of Arena Box.
In Top Rank's legal papers, they claim to have satisfied several of Gamboa requests - including monetary advances totaling $70,000, the scheduling of a press conference in his hometown of Miami, and agreeing to provide the Cuban boxer with four times his contract minimum to fight Rios.
"Bob Arum has been filling you all up with this bullsh*t for years and robbing fighters. He's trying to sue Leonard for Gamboa, knowing that he's been treating his fighter wrong. Knowing he's been treating his fighter wrong. [Gamboa] came over here and all this fighter wanted to do is making a living. They've been treating this fighter wrong from the beginning. I'm wrong because I want to treat a fighter right? You know why? Because Don King and Bob Arum can't see out the eyes of a fighter, because they are not a fighter," Mayweather said.
However, Arum denies that his company is pursuing a legal action against Mayweather Promotions and Ellerbe.
There are allegations being circulated in the press, that claim individuals affiliated with Mayweather's promotional company persuaded Gamboa to walk away from the Rios deal. It's not exactly a secret that Gamboa has been spending a lot of time with Mayweather and other members of his team.
"He said what he said, this is great. Again, people read it and they are sort of astonished with the language and everything. And the lawyers read it and they lick their chops," Arum told BoxingScene.
"And why he brought it up at all, and said that we were suing Leonard and Mayweather Promotions - maybe he's predicting the future. We're not suing them. Maybe they are expecting to get sued, but we aren't suing them."