Manny Pacquiao wants rematch with Floyd Mayweather

Manny Pacquiao wants a rematch with Floyd Mayweather.

The Filipino ring icon made the pronouncement on Monday in a live interview on "24 Oras," a day after he lost via unanimous decision to the unbeaten American champion.

"Kung ako, gusto ko mag-rematch," said Pacquiao, adding that he wants to face Mayweather at his best. Pacquiao admitted to being affected by an injury during the fight after hurting his shoulder in training.

Pacquiao, however, doesn't know if Mayweather would want to face him again.

"Ewan ko sa kaniya kung gusto niya  mag-rematch," said Pacquiao, whose negotiations with Mayweather was off and on for five years before they finally agreed to have a fight.

There is no rematch clause in the contract of the two fighters.

Before looking at another fight with Mayweather, however, Pacquiao will undergo another magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exam to determine if he needs surgery on his shoulder.

Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach has already express willingness to go at Mayweather again.

"I thought we fought a good fight," said the Hall of Famer. "We’d love to do it again. Hopefully as soon in the future."

Mayweather, for his part, doesn't seem to be too keen on another faceoff with Pacquiao.

"I can quit boxing today and I’m a-okay," he said. "In my era I’m TBE (The Best Ever)." -- JST, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com

Las Vegas police on alert ahead of Pacquiao-Mayweather fight

LAS VEGAS, United States - Las Vegas authorities could take the rare step of barring traffic from the gambling hub's famous Strip this weekend as they brace the massive crowds expected to descend on Sin City for the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao super fight.

The bout at the MGM is sold out and hotels are overflowing with guests as between 150,000 to 200,000 people are expected to pour into the desert city for the showdown being billed as the "Fight of the Century".

"We have handled events like this before where we had to shut down the Strip," Erik Newman, Deputy Fire Chief of Clark County Fire Department told Agence France-Presse. "What we are preparing for is the NBA all-star game in 2007."

Las Vegas officials are hoping to avoid a repeat of the chaotic February 2007 all-star game weekend which saw several people shot and around 400 people arrested.

Scattered fights broke out along The Strip and there were at least four shootings attributed to basketball fans.

That number includes three people who were injured outside the Minxx stripclub in a shooting that was connected to a group associated with National Football League player Adam "Pacman" Jones.

‘Whole world watching’

"The fight itself will be safe," said Newman. "Our big fear is the clubs and everything else. The problem is there are so many high-profile artists coming to town. We will have our hands full.

"We will have extra units out and metro (police) will have extra units out as well. We know the whole world will be watching."

Saturday's record-breaking spectacle, which will bring in $400 million to $500 million to the city's economy, has created its own set of security issues for law enforcement.

Larry Hadfield, spokesperson for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police, said they will be beefing up their staffing in and around the MGM Grand Hotel and stepping up patrols along the main casino strip.

Hadfield told AFP they started planning for the blockbuster bout the moment it was announced in February.

"We are planning for the worst. We are getting pretty good at doing these big events. We have a vast number of resources," he said.

Besides the hotel security, police will also be working with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.

Crowd control inside the 16,000 seat MGM's Grand Garden Arena is also a concern.

The Grand Garden has been the scene of two recent post-fight stampedes, including one after the Mayweather-Marcos Maidana fight last May that injured 60 people. The stampede was caused when a partition that fell in the lobby area sounded like gunshots to the crowd that was exiting the arena.

Another less serious stampede happened in the same lobby when the crowd was leaving the Mayweather-Maidana rematch fight in September.

In September 1996, the MGM was the scene of an incident involving the late rapper Tupac Shakur. After the Mike Tyson-Bruce Seldon fight, Shakur was caught on a video camera beating a man in the hotel's lobby area. Later that night Shakur was shot dead in a drive-by shooting in a killing that has yet to be solved.

"We're not going to let the criminal element take over and make our town unsafe," Roxanne McDaris, Lieutenant with the events planning section of the Las Vegas police, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper earlier this week. "We're doing everything in our power to make it safe."

Tim Jeffery, MGM's vice president of security, said security will be enhanced with their hotel employees supplementing the police.

Jeffrey also said they are going streamline crowd control after the fight and open more exit doors to prevent another lobby stampede.

"We are going to be directing people to specific exits to avoid that logjam," he said. "You will see a noticeable increase in the number of security." — Agence France-Presse

source: gmanetwork.com

Mayweather, a perfect fighter but flawed man, cashes in

LAS VEGAS - Floyd Mayweather Jr. describes himself as a perfectionist and inside the ring the boxer known as the 'Money Man' is just that, his flawless professional record of 47-0 a monument to perfection.

But outside the arena Mayweather's pursuit of an equally accomplished life ended long ago in defeat, the gunman of his own character assassination.

Over the last decade, Mayweather has been accused of assaulting five different women on at least seven different occasions, including a 2010 incident that resulted in a 90-day prison sentence.

But it is the perfect fighter not the flawed man some boxing fans will pay over $100,000 to watch on Saturday when Mayweather steps into the ring at the MGM Grand Arena to face the soft-spoken but stone fisted Manny Pacquiao in what is expected to be the biggest grossing prize fight of all time.

"I'm a little different from everyone else," Mayweather explained to reporters. "I am only human, I make mistakes. I try to be a perfectionist but no one is perfect.

"We don't know how this fight is going to play out but I believe in my skills."

Supreme confidence and self-belief are qualities that have never been in short supply for a boxer who has not tasted defeat since a controversial loss to Bulgarian Serafim Todorov in a semi-final bout at the 1996 Olympics.

That loss so stung Mayweather that he vowed never to lose again. He immediately turned professional and 19 years later has held true to his word, capturing 11 world titles in five weight divisions and amassed a fortune that last year put him atop Forbes' annual rankings of the highest paid athletes.

Win-or-lose on Saturday, the title of the world's best paid sportsman is one Mayweather is likely to maintain with a guaranteed payday of $120 million that some predict could top $180 million, depending on pay-per-view buys.

The money will support a lavish lifestyle that includes a Las Vegas mansion, a fleet of exotic cars and a private jet that he says he will use after the fight to criss-cross the United States to watch the NBA playoffs.

Latest stop

The glitz of the Las Vegas Strip and Saturday's 'Fight of the Century' is the latest stop in a decades-long journey that began 38 years ago in the grit and grime of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Mayweather Jr. was born into a boxing obsessed family to a drug addict mother and it was there in the rust belt that his father, Floyd Mayweather Sr., who once fought Sugar Ray Leonard, would polish and hone his son's considerable boxing skills.

Over the years the Mayweather father/son, trainer/boxer relationship has been a stormy one, Floyd Sr. once using his young son as a human shield when a relative threatened to shoot him.

For all the strain and long periods of estrangement, however, the Mayweathers have so far developed an unbeatable game plan and on Saturday Floyd Sr. will be in his son's corner mapping out the strategy.

"From the beginning of my career, I've always had a game plan. It's just like chess," said Mayweather.

"We make calculated moves in the ring and outside the ring. I got with the right team and surrounded myself with the right chess pieces. I'm a lot older now, a lot wiser."

Indeed, the father of four appears to have undergone a noticeable personality change that hints at a new maturity ahead of the biggest fight of his career.

Gone, for the moment, is the brash, trash-talking Mayweather to be replaced by a reflective fighter more keenly aware of his legacy.

Now 38, Mayweather veered of topic during a pre-fight news conference to talk about the part a parent plays as a role model while declaring himself a pioneering anti-doping crusader for taking a stand against drugs and refusing fight Pacquiao until the Filipino agreed to out-of-competition blood-testing.

"Children should look up to their parents first," said Mayweather. "Parents should be the role model first before an athlete.

"We do certain things, I come out I speak loud, I have the flamboyant 'Money Mayweather' persona but that doesn't mean I hate anyone. It is all about entertainment. People want to be entertained." — Reuters

Sources: Unbeaten world champ Rigondeaux sparring with Pacquiao

Getting a world-class sparring partner who has a similar style to Floyd Mayweather is beyond difficult to find, but Manny Pacquiao may have found just the perfect guy for the job.

Sources told GMA News Online that unbeaten world super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux has been tapped to spar with Pacquiao in preparation for his long-awaited showdown against Mayweather on May 2.

One source said that Pacquiao and Rigondeaux have already started to spar with each other at the famed Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles this past week. Pacquiao was said to not have worn a headgear during the sparring session while Guillermo was equipped with full boxing gears.

A pugilist who possesses excellent speed, power, footwork and boxing skills, the 34-year-old Cuban is a two-time Olympic gold medalist and a three-time amateur boxing World Cup gold medalist.

He has a perfect record of 15-0 with 10 knockouts and holds a dominant victory over Nonito Donaire in 2013.

Perhaps more importantly, Rigondeaux possesses the quick reflexes and defensive style that could help Pacquiao get an idea of how it would be to face Mayweather inside the ring.

Rigondeaux had previously trained under Roach, drawing high praise from the Hall of Fame trainer.

GMA News Online got in touch with Rigondeaux's manager Gary Hyde to confirm the report but he respectfully declined to comment on the matter. —JST, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com

Pacquiao's conditioning coach blasts Mayweather camp for dirty tricks

Manny Pacquiao's strength and conditioning coach Justin Fortune blasted the camp of Floyd Mayweather amid allegations that people close to the American fighter have been bribing fighters not to spar with the Filipino ring icon.

According to various reports, Mayweather's adviser Al Haymon is offering money to boxers not to pass on Pacquiao's camp, with the amount being offered said to be much more than what they would get as sparmates.

"It's childish, It's f---ing schoolyard. If I'm a sparring partner I'm not going to be bribed," Fortune told boxingscene.com.

Nevetheless, Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach has already found fighters willing to help the Filipino in preparation for his long awaited showdown against Mayweather. Still it doesn't stop Fortune from verbally jabbing the brash American's camp.

"Freddie has all his sparring partners lined up. So I'm sure these guys are with promoters and stuff like that," said Fortune.

"Al Haymon... it's just so stupid, so schoolyardish. If that's the extent of the mind games. I mean, they need to go back to school." —JST, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com

How Pacquiao can beat Mayweather, according to Juan Manuel Marquez

 

Juan Manuel Marquez has been in four wars with Manny Pacquiao, so he knows better than anyone what the Filipino fight icon is capable of inside the ring.

 

The proud Mexican champion has also fought against Floyd Mayweather, giving Marquez a unique perspective about the upcoming mega-fight on May 2 in Las Vegas.

 

And unlike most observers, Marquez sees Mayweather struggling with Pacquiao.

 

"Floyd Mayweather isn’t really used to fighting with southpaws," Marquez said on the Mexican show Golpe Y Golpe. 

 

Marquez detailed how Pacquiao can break through Mayweather's vaunted defense.

 

"We know how Floyd Mayweather uses his shoulder roll, so with an orthodox fighter he can dodge many of those shots and wait for openings in his opponents than counter. Manny Pacquiao on his part has to use his speed, and lateral movement and in turn do not give Mayweather any space or minimal space to make him uncomfortable on that very stance," said Marquez.

 

The Mexico City native also took note what punches Pacquiao could use to bother Mayweather.

 

"The right hook will be key as a lefty for Manny Pacquiao.  can set it up by using a left jab to the body and following it up with a hook from the outside and repeating a double hook and he can finish it off with a straight left. The repetition will be key in landing those combinations and Pacquiao has to change it up for Floyd not to adapt," said Marquez, adding that Mayweather's boxing IQ makes the brash American formidable.

 

"He sets traps and throws nice uppercuts from long distance, and he will use that reach advantage to do so. He will follow that up with counter rights and straight lefts from range because of that advantage." —JST, GMA News

 

source: gmanetwork.com

Pacquiao has chance if he could slip through Mayweather’s defense – ESPN

Veteran ESPN commentator Teddy Atlas has picked Floyd Mayweather Jr. to win over Manny Pacquiao in the much-anticipated superfight scheduled on May 2 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Atlas said in a video that Mayweather has the size advantage as the bigger fighter, standing an inch taller and having a longer reach than the smaller and lighter Pacquiao.

Pacman's knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012 also adds a psychological upper-hand to the unbeaten pound-for-pound king, according to the former boxing trainer.

"The edge goes to Mr. Mayweather, the Money man," he said. "He is the better defensive fighter, the guy that will take advantage of reckless aggression of Pacquiao."

Atlas, however, said that Pacman still has a chance if he could slip through the American boxer's seemingly impenetrable defense, which won him 47 fights in his professional career.

"Pacquiao needs to understand that sometimes Mayweather gets intoxicated with his defense," he said. "He starts slipping and sliding a little too much sometimes and allows you to get into him."

Still, Mayweather will be brimming with confidence as he never had a single taste of loss, according to Atlas. The eight-division champion needs to utilize his speed, his greatest weapon, in order to land some shots and steal rounds.

"Pacquiao can match Floyd just about with hand speed," he said. "He’s a little busier than Floyd. Pacquiao will have opportunities with Floyd when he is in the defensive mode a little too much." — Marisse Panaligan/LBG, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com

No rematch clause, no problem for Arum: Pacquiao will beat Mayweather

Bob Arum is not bothered that there is no rematch clause in the deal for the megafight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on May 2.

The Top Rank promoter is confident that the eight-division champion will defeat the yet unbeaten Mayweather in the single-bout affair.

"I tell you, there's going to be one winner from this fight, and it's gonna be the congressman from Sarangani, Manny Pacquiao," Arum told 24 Oras in an interview.

The fight was officially announced by Mayweather on his Shots account on Saturday (PHL time), ending five years of on-and-off negotiations.

The talks to make the happen took months after Pacman called Mayweather following his demolition of Chris Algieri in Macau in November.

According to Arum, the negotiations were stalled due to the "mistrust" between the two camps and the "lies" spread by the press.

"The negotiations were very difficult," he said. "A lot of it was impeded by some elements of the Philippine press who were reporting lies that had no basis in reality but impeded the negotiations." — Marisse Panaligan/JDS, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com