MANILA, Philippines – A week after seemingly giving up on a mega-fight against American Floyd Mayweather Jr., Filipino champ Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao is once again talking about a showdown against the unbeaten boxer.
In an interview with Inquirer.net, Pacquiao dared Mayweather – boxing’s pound-for-pound king and the highest-paid athlete in the world – to fight him for charity.
“I challenge him to include in our fight contract that both of us will not receive anything out of this fight,” Pacquiao said. “We will donate all the proceeds from the fight – guaranteed prize, should there be any, gate receipts, pay-per-view and endorsements – to charities around the world.”
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| Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao |
A fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather has long been considered to be the richest fight that can be made in boxing, with the potential to break all box-office records.
But it has been in limbo for years, as both sides repeatedly failed to come to an agreement during the various negotiations that have taken place. Mayweather recently said a Pacquiao fight cannot happen as long as the Filipino fights under the banner of Top Rank and promoter Bob Arum.
Pacquiao, meanwhile, has said he has no plans of violating his contract with Top Rank, and recently told his fans to forget about the Mayweather fight for the meantime.
But the Filipino appears to revive talks of the mega-fight with his “dare,” even after Mayweather announced that he plans to retire next year.
“The public clamor for a Pacquiao-Mayweather bout is getting stronger. The only way he can avoid facing me in the ring is to retire from boxing,” Pacquiao said.
“Floyd, if you’re a real man, fight me,” he added. “Let’s do it for the love of boxing and for the fans. Let’s not do it for the sake of money. Let’s make boxing fans happy.”
Mayweather has yet to reply to Pacquiao’s dare, but the unbeaten American has been adamant that the Filipino has “had his chance” to fight him and turned it down due to differences of opinion regarding the split of the pay-per-view revenue.
The American has also claimed that Pacquiao only wants to fight him because he is dealing with tax problems both in the Philippines and in the United States, which the “Pacman” denied.
“As to my tax problem, my lawyers are fixing it already,” Pacquiao told Inquirer.net. “I’m paying my taxes religiously. It is just a matter of reconciling our records with the tax agencies both here and abroad.”
“Should there be any discrepancy, rest assured, I will settle it. I’m a lawmaker and I’m a law-abiding citizen.”
Pacquiao and Mayweather were once considered the two best boxers in the world pound-for-pound, but Pacquiao’s consecutive losses in 2012 has sent him tumbling down the pound-for-pound rankings.
Mayweather, meanwhile, was briefly incarcerated in 2012 but bounced back with two comprehensive victories in 2013, beating Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in May and September, respectively.
Pacquiao fought only once in 2013, breaking his two-fight losing streak with a one-sided demolition of Brandon “Bam Bam” Rios last November in Macau.
