By Edward Chaykovsky
Former champion Antonio Tarver sees no reason for a rematch between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.
The richest fight in boxing history took place last month at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, with Mayweather winning a dominant twelve round unanimous decision to unify the WBO/WBC/WBA welterweight championships.
Mayweather is going to return on September 12th at the MGM Grand, likely in his last career fight (according to him). Pacquiao, who is recovering from a shoulder injury that was suffered in the fourth round of the Mayweather loss, is going to fight again in 2016.
Pacquiao wants a rematch next year, but Tarver says there is no point in doing it again - even with the record breaking financial figures that were generated in their May meeting.
"I don’t think so. I think Floyd solved the puzzle, Manny couldn’t get to Floyd. Manny couldn’t hurt Floyd when he did hit him. I was surprised that Manny didn’t have as good of control of his footing as I thought coming into the fight. He was jumping up, off balance a lot, just flinging. He wasn’t setting traps, he wasn’t really thinking in there with Floyd," Tarver told On The Ropes Boxing Radio.
"You gotta think with Floyd, you can’t just be a physical fighter, you gotta be an intelligent fighter that has punching power and ability to box and counter punch. You gotta be a complete fighter and complete fighters are very rare. That’s what it’s gonna take to beat Floyd Mayweather. You’re not gonna get lucky beating a guy that’s so sharp like that, he’s not gonna leave no room for luck.
"You’re gonna have to outthink Mayweather, you’re gonna have to set traps, you gotta run him into shit. You have to be unpredictable in there, you gotta change it up about five or six different times in order to win a fight with Floyd."