By Edward Chaykovsky
Trainer Jeff Mayweather, who is the uncle of retired former five division world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr., shook his head at the recently announced fight between WBO welterweight world champion Manny Pacquiao and unbeaten Australian Olympian Jeff Horn.
The fight is scheduled for April 22, likely in Australia, and Horn is a huge underdog in the contest.
"It’s just a cash out. A guy whose most significant win is Randall Bailey, that speaks volumes right there because at the end of the day, Pacquiao fought maybe ten guys that are past the level of Randall Bailey and we’re talking a prime Randall Bailey, not the Randall of old," Jeff told On The Ropes Boxing Radio.
Jeff's nephew, Floyd Mayweather, won a twelve round decision over Pacquiao in May of 2015. The Filipino superstar returned last year with decision wins over Timothy Bradley and Jessie Vargas.
Fans were hoping to see Pacquiao face WBO, WBC junior middleweight world champion Terence Crawford. Jeff is not giving Pacquiao any shot of beating Crawford. He feels Pacquiao is now a gatekeeper who is good enough to beat the B-level fighters, but at the same time he's no longer good enough to beat A-level opponents like Crawford or undefeated rising welterweight star Errol Spence.
"I think that Terence Crawford is a very big guy. People that don’t know him or haven’t seen him or stood next to him, they don’t realize how big he is. I think that he’s a fighter that’s on the way up and he’s getting better and better with each fight. I think Pacquiao is basically now just a gatekeeper. The guys who are not at the top echelon he will probably beat, but the guys who are hot like Errol Spence or Terence Crawford, he’s not going to beat those guys," Jeff said.
