By Edward Chaykovsky
WBA/WBC welterweight and junior middleweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. believes Manny Pacquiao, the WBO champion at 147-pounds, had no choice but to accept a fight with him for May 2nd at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Mayweather says Pacquiao's "back was against the wall" and the Filipino star is in need of money. The undefeated pound-for-pound king points to Pacquiao's tax troubles in the United States and the Philippines and he also take a few jabs at Pacquiao's inability to break 400,000 pay-per-view purchases for his contest in last fall against Chris Algieri.
If Pacquiao does have money issue, he won't have them for too much longer. The May 2nd showdown is likely to break every single financial fight record - including the pay-per-view record of 2.4 million, which Mayweather set with Oscar De La Hoya in 2007..
"And like I said before, I'm blessed and you can never take nothing for granted. The only thing I did was constantly work, constantly believe, constantly pray, and anything is possible. And like I said before, I can retire today and I'm okay. I was very, very smart investing my money in a lot of real estate, doing business with my big tycoon buddies. The great thing about my career is I did it my way," Mayweather told Fighthype.com.
"A lot of guys are forced to do things that they don't want to do. I honestly believe that, at this particular time, even if Pacquiao didn't want to fight, he has no choice because his back is against the wall. The reason why his back is against the wall is because he needs the money. I don't. Every property that I have, from Miami to LA to Las Vegas, is paid for."