By Keith Idec
Floyd Mayweather Jr. reiterated during an interview with Showtime’s Jim Gray on Friday night that Manny Pacquiao is the fighter to blame for the most lucrative event in boxing history failing to satisfy fans who wanted much more action.
“The fans have to be mad at Pacquiao,” an animated Mayweather told Gray, while pointing at the television reporter. “They can’t be mad at me. I done my job. I never said I was a checkers player. I’m a chess player. I play chess. Every move is calculated. But the fans should’ve thought about that when I was running through everybody at one particular time.”
The interview aired between bouts Showtime televised from Las Vegas as part of the network’s “ShoBox: The New Generation” series.
The 38-year-old Mayweather (48-0, 26 KOs), who’ll defend his WBA and WBC welterweight titles against Andre Berto (30-3, 23 KOs) on Sept. 12 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas (Showtime Pay-Per-View; $74.95 in HD), easily out-pointed Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) in what was billed as the biggest fight in boxing history May 2 at MGM Grand.
The long-awaited showdown was an incomparable financial success in boxing because it drew a record amount of pay-per-view buys, nearly 4.5 million, and generated nearly $600 million in overall revenue. But it drew an enormous amount of criticism because it lacked action and Pacquiao claimed after the fight that a pre-fight shoulder injury that later required surgery prohibited the Filipino southpaw from fighting to his potential.
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.