By James Slater – Floyd “Money” Mayweather has a lot on his mind right now, it must be acknowledged. The soon-to-be-34-year-old has a number of legal issues that must be sorted out, and it will only be after this is the case that the general consensus for P-4-P#2 will be able to box again. However, recent actions by the unbeaten superstar show he IS still thinking about boxing. In fact, what Floyd did over the weekend proves he has one potential rival on his mind more than any other: Manny Pacquiao..
Yesterday, via his Twitter and FaceBook accounts, Mayweather posted links to three of Pac-Man’s losing fights – his fans able to view Pacquiao losing to Rustico Torrecampo from 1996 and Medgoen Singsurat, from ’99, as well as Pac-Man’s losing fight with Erik Morales from 2005.
It’s not clear what Mayweather hoped or hopes to achieve from this, but he has said before that the man who took his spot atop the P-4-P ratings is very much beatable. Apparently, Mayweather has close to a million followers on Twitter. Not choosing to “follow” Floyd this way, I never knew this, nor did I know about the recent posts Floyd added (fellow sites fight hype and examiner.com picked up on the Twitter story).
But it seems clear to me that Mayweather wants to make sure his fans see Pac-Man being beaten, being stopped even. But why? In today’s world, these losses mean absolutely nothing. The 3rd-round KO loss Pacquiao suffered against Torrecampo came down at 112-pounds, at a time when Manny was just 17-years-old and a mere 12 fights into his pro career. Needless to say, Pac-Man has come on leaps and bounds since then. As he has since his flyweight loss to Singsurat. Back then, Pacquiao was a WBC champion, but he was still only 21 and still learning his trade.
The loss to Morales came more recently, and Manny was by then trained by the man who arguably made him the great he is today: Freddie Roach. But the points loss of 2005 was of the very close variety (maybe as close as Floyd’s first fight with Jose Luis Castillo?) and Manny subsequently avenged it twice by comprehensive, dominant stoppage.
Again, what is Mayweather trying to prove by refreshing the minds of his fans by showing them these fights? A while back, shortly after he launched that home-made assault on Pacquiao via his Usstream account – in which Floyd came across as a racists, homophobic jerk; later apologising for his behaviour – many fans suggested Mayweather might be close to obsessed with his would-be foe.
In light of his recent actions, maybe he is!