Floyd Mayweather to Manny Pacquiao: 'Step Up to the Plate'

Floyd Mayweather was nowhere to be seen in the MGM Grand Hotel during the lead-up to this past Saturday night's Manny Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto welterweight megafight. Nor could the undefeated, five-time champion and Las Vegas resident be found when Pacquiao made history by lifting from Cotto the WBO's 147-pound title belt.

But in the days since Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, stood in the ring before a packed MGM Grand Garden Arena and called out his name as the man he wanted to be Pacquiao's next opponent, Mayweather has gotten the message loud and clear.

Mayweather's name was even chanted by the crowd of more than 16,200, but he says that he just hasn't heard it from Pacquiao's own mouth.

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"They are all talking for him, but Manny Pacquiao has yet to say he wants to fight me. If he wants to fight me, all he has to do is step up to the plate," said Mayweather, who is 40-0, with 25 knockouts, after pitching a virtual shutout over Juan Manuel Marquez in his last fight in September.

Mayweather, whose nickname has morphed from "Pretty Boy," to, "Money," watched Saturday's fight from his home in Las Vegas.

"Manny Pacquiao is the fighter, and every time someone asks him if he wants to fight me, he says it is up to his promoter, or he's going to take a vacation, or whatever the answer is. I have yet to hear him actually say, 'yes I want to fight Mayweather,'" said Mayweather in a statement issued by his media company.

"We are the fighters, and if one fighter is talking about fighting another fighter, then they should just come out and say it," said Mayweather. "Manny Pacquiao doesn't say anything directly about fighting me because he might just know it's not a fight he can win."

Pacquiao (50-3-2, 37 KOs) and Mayweather are considered to be the sport's premier fighters, pound-for-pound, and the logical rivals in a bout whose magnitude should surpass all others.

"The world is much more intrigued by the thought of someone fighting me who can beat me. That is what everyone wants to see and the boxing world is trying to find that guy," said Mayweather, 32. "Manny Pacquaio's people have done a good job of creating an image of him to be this unbelievable fighter, and now the so-called guy to beat me. But like all the rest, he's not the one."
"There is boxing and then there is me. The rest are just falling in line behind me or are trying to get in line to fight me. And that includes Manny Pacquiao too."
-- Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Like Mayweather, Pacquiao, 30, has victories over Marquez, Ricky Hatton and Oscar De La Hoya. Mayweather beat Hatton and De La Hoya first, by knockout and decision, respectively, before Pacquiao stopped both fighters. Mayweather has decisioned Marquez, and Pacquiao has drawn with and decisioned Marquez.

"Less than an hour after his fight Saturday night the talk turns back to me. Their whole promotion was just a Mayweather sweepstakes. They know it and anyone could figure that out. Why? Because my name kept coming up and I didn't even say anything," said Mayweather.

Richard Schaefer, representing Mayweather on behalf of Golden Boy promotions, said that he would work with Pacquiao's promoter, Bob Arum of Top Rank, to get Mayweather-Pacquiao done.

"I think it will be a great fight, and a big fight, and I really don't want to say anything else, because there is really not much more to be said right now," said Schaefer. "But I do think that it could be one of those fights which certainly has the potential to break any and all records."

Schaefer and Arum have successfully pulled off such matchups as Pacqauiao's fights opposite Marquez, De La Hoya, Hatton and Marco Antonio Barrera, as well as Cotto-Shane Mosley, Barrera-Erik Morales, De La Hoya-Fernando Vargas, Mosley-Antonio Margrito, and Bernard Hopkins-Kelly Pavlik.

"In the last five years, we've done so many big fights together, and in the process, we've developed a mutual respect for each other. So, I think Bob likes to work with us, and we like to work with him," said Schaefer. "Let the people behind the scenes do their job, and hopefully, we are going to be successful putting that together."

Arum told FanHouse he wanted to wait before starting negotiations -- at least until Wednesday, when it could be determined whether or not Pacquiao-Cotto had approached or surpassed the pay-per-view buys mark of 2.4 million set by Mayweather-De La Hoya in May of 2007.

"[Pacquiao] said during an interview he did leading up to his fight that he didn't think I wanted to fight him, and that boxing, for me, was just a business, and I wasn't interested in a good fight," said Mayweather.

"But again, he never said during that interview that he would fight me. Why is he talking about what I won't do instead of what he wants to do? Plain and simple, it's because he knows he can't beat me under any circumstances."