Mayweather puts blame on Pacquiao for failure to work out deal

A day after Manny Pacquiao's promoter, Bob Arum, blamed Floyd Mayweather for scuttling the mediation and negotiations for their proposed March 13 megafight, declaring that "Floyd Mayweather walked away. the fight is off," Mayweather lashed out at Pacquiao and his promoter.

In a statement released Thursday, Mayweather said, "Throughout this whole process I have remained patient but at this point I am thoroughly disgusted that Pacquiao and his representatives are trying to blame me for the fight not happening when clearly the blame is on them," he said.

"First and foremost, not only do I want to fight Manny Pacquiao, I want to whip his punk a—."

Arum, reached by phone Thursday, responded by saying, "Now that the fight's off, he wants to whip his punk a—. That's a real manly statement."

Mayweather explained in his statement that before the mediation, his team proposed a 14-day, no blood testing window leading up to the fight. "But it was rejected," he said.

"I am still proposing the 14-day window but (Pacquiao) is still unwilling to agree to it, even though this is obviously a fair compromise on my part as I wanted the testing to be up until the fight and he wanted a 30-day cut-off. The truth is he just doesn't want to take the tests."

Arum said, "Floyd Mayweather can say whatever he now wants to say, but his actions over the last several weeks demonstrate that he didn't want to get in the ring against Pacquiao. He made excuse after excuse, and when put to the test, he chose to flee rather than fight.

"I've been in this business for almost 50 years. I've handled some of the greatest Hall of Fame fighters — Ali, Foreman, Hagler, Hearns, Duran, Leonard — they argue about this, they argue about that, but every fighter agrees to be bound by the rules and regulations of the athletic commission in which the fight is to take place. That's been the historic basis for this sport, and I made a terrible, terrible mistake at trying to appease this egomaniac kid.

"When he started with the special blood-testing, we should've told him 'goodbye, forget about it, if you want to fight, the fight's in Nevada, the commission will regulate it.' You don't appease. I made a fundamental mistake. In order to get this fight the public wanted, I appeased an egomaniac by talking to him about blood testing. And that was stupid on my part."

Arum had said Wednesday night he couldn't discuss the sticking point in the mediation with retired federal judge Daniel Weinstein in Los Angeles. But going in, Arum had said the biggest issue was the drug testing, as well as a demand by Pacquiao for an apology from Mayweather's side for saying that Pacquiao had taken performance-enhancing drugs. He said Thursday that Pacquiao agree to urine tests any time leading up to the fight and afterwards, and orginally agree to blood tests no closer than 30 days from the fight, then moved it to 24 days out.

Weinstein issued a statement Thursday that said, among other things, that "Both parties participated in the mediation in good faith. Both parties participated in many hours of negotiation, with a number of proposals issued by each side and carefully considered by the parties and their representatives."

Weinstein said he himself "did not formulate, recommend or issue a Mediator's Proposal. The Mediator did not make an evaluation or finding that any one of the many proposals considered by the parties was the correct protocol."

He went on to say that "Any attempt to characterize the mediation process as an acceptance or rejection by any of the parties of a mediator's or an arbiter's proposal or of any specific proposal is false.

d. In the end, the parties could not agree on a testing protocol acceptable to all."

Arum refused to accept any blame for the failure of mediation. "The fight's off not because of us, not even because of (Mayweather's) people —he was represented by Golden Boy Promotions — it's because of (Floyd) personally."

"It's not surprising. I always felt that he wasn't going to do the fight. He knows Manny will beat him. Mayweather's never stepped into the ring with a guy he had any question but that he was going to beat.

"That's why there's never been a (Shane) Mosley, there's never been a (Antonio) Margarito, there never was a (Miguel) Cotto, and there's no Pacquiao.

"Floyd Mayweather is a coward. He will never fight anyone that will remotely give him a tough fight."

Mayweather, not surprisingly, saw it a completely different way.

"In my opinion it is Manny Pacquiao and his team who are denying the people a chance to see the biggest fight ever," Mayweather said. "I know the people will see through their smokescreens and lies. I am ready to fight and sign the contract. Manny needs to stop making his excuses, step up and fight."

Both Mayweather and Pacquiao figured to make $25 million to $40 million for the fight, which was supposed to take place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Arum said Pacquiao will now look at fighting undefeated Israeli WBA super welterweight champion Yuri Foreman either March 13 or March 20 in Las Vegas. "We're going to check out all the sites tomorrow," Arum said.

Mayweather has talked about fighting WBO light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi in Las Vegas on March 13.

Mayweather's manager, Leonard Ellerbe, said Thursday night he hopes the fight will eventually be made.

"I'm hopeful that we can come to an agreement," Ellerbe said. "Floyd has made one heck of a compromise. They wanted 30 (days), we didn't want any, Floyd met him in the middle. Isn't that a significant compromise?

"Boxing has a wonderful opportunity to take the sport back to the mainstream. Millions upon millions of people will watch this fight, and you have a fighter who thinks he's the best, and a guy who knows he's the best. (Floyd's) been the best for over a decade now. And he has an unblemished record.

"The ball is in Manny Pacquiao's court now. We'll see what happens."

Arum had said Wednesday night that the fight will never happen. Thursday, he softened that stance a bit. "Maybe we'll revisit it in the fall," he said. "At that time, I won't make the same stupid mistake I made before. I'll tell him, 'you want to fight Pacquiao, it's under the rules and regulations of the Nevada Commission.' Period. End of story."

Source: usatoday.com