Mayweather blames Pacquiao for fight's collapse

Undefeated fighter Floyd Mayweather, Jr. has found a new opponent in fellow American Shane Mosley, but he still has a mouthful to say about Manny Pacquiao, whom he was supposed to fight in March until negotiations crumbled.

“The question that people want to know is why didn’t Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather fight? It wasn’t my fault! I’m not duckin’ and dodgin’ nobody. 40 have came and 40 have came up short,” Mayweather said in a RadioPlanet.tv interview as quoted by Andre Zurbrug of FightHype.com.

Pacquiao and Mayweather were slated to fight on March 13 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Their blockbuster bout, however, did not push through as they disagreed on the drug testing procedure.

The Filipino boxing sensation will instead face Ghanaian Joshua Clottey on March 13 at the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas while Mayweather will fight Mosley on May 1 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

The Mayweather vs Mosley deal is reportedly final, as Mosley already signed the contract, according to ESPN.com. Mayweather’s signature was to come “in the next few days.”

It is uncertain if Mosley, the World Boxing Association (WBA) welterweight super champion, will defend his title.

Mosley was supposed to take on Haitian Andre Berto in January but Berto pulled out because some of his family members died in the devastating magnitude-7.0 earthquake last January 12.

Drug testing issue

Mayweather and Mosley have reportedly agreed to undergo Olympic-style drug testing.

“Shane is fine with Olympic-style drug testing,” Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer told Steve Carp of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “He welcomes more stringent testing. He has nothing to hide.”

The drug testing spelled the end of the Pacquiao vs Mayweather blockbuster bout.

“So all I was saying is I’m just trying to clean up sports period. I’m saying that he’s not the only one that has to take a random drug test, I do too. That’s the only thing I was saying. I never met nobody in sports history that didn’t want to take a 25 million dollar drug test,” continued Mayweather.

“The thing is, what people don’t know about the sport of boxing, in a fighter’s career, a fighter starts off good and he be good all the way to end of his career or a fighter starts off good and goes downhill towards the end of his career. A fighter doesn’t start off like Manny Pacquiao, just ordinary, and then once he gets over the age of 25, he becomes an extraordinary fighter.”

Pacquiao sued Mayweather and some of his team members for their allegations that he was taking performance-enhancing drugs.

10 years in the making

Both American boxers are said to be raring to get in the ring on May 1.

“It's a fight people have wanted to see for a long time, but never happened for whatever reasons,” Mosley’s lawyer Judd Burstein told the Los Angeles Times as quoted by ESPN.com.

“Now that it's going to happen, Shane is looking forward to doing what he and many of his fans have long thought he would do,” he added.

Mayweather’s adviser, Leonard Ellerbe, said that Floyd Jr. is excited. “He's waited 10 years for this opportunity to fight Mosley.”

Source: Author Unknown  | abs-cbnnew.com