Boxing: Floyd Mayweather Jr. Believes Timing Right for Blockbuster Manny Pacquiao Bout

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Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao remains the one fight boxing has to offer that everyone wants to see. Yet for one reason or another, it has never come to fruition.

There is no time like the present for Mayweather, who recently told Sherdog.com boxing partner Fight Hype the blockbuster would be booked already if it were up to him.

“I think it’s just timing,” Mayweather said. “It’s the right time, the right place, and I think this fight should happen. The time is right, and the time is now. For years and years, the public has been lied to. For years and years, the public has been misled by the other side.”

Surely if you asked members of Pacquiao’s camp or promoters Bob Arum and Oscar De La Hoya, they may have an entirely different point of view. However, Mayweather remains the biggest draw in boxing, which means the ball is in his court and he will likely be calling all the shots in regards to if, when and where the fight takes place. Add this to Pacquiao’s recent losses against Juan Manuel Marquez and Timothy Bradley Jr. and it only furthers Mayweather’s feelings that “Pac-Man” needs to fight him, not the other way around.

“If we just turned the tables and I was in the position that Manny Pacquiao is in at this particular time, I wouldn’t be able to have any say so at all,” Mayweather said. “If I got knocked out, if I took a loss to Timothy Bradley ... whether it was a robbery or not, at the end of the day, Pacquiao’s hand didn’t get raised. A lot of times in the past you hear people say, ‘Floyd Mayweather is scared of Manny Pacquiao; he’s a coward.’ Myself, I don’t want to see a coward fight. This is called boxing. I’m the best at what I do. I always have a strategy. It’s not if you win; it’s how you win. People always remember a winner, [and] I always find a way to win.”

Drug testing was originally one of the many issues preventing a potential fight between the pair. However, the move by Pacquiao to utilize Voluntary Anti-Doping Association standards during the lead-in to his bout with Chris Algieri could potentially show his willingness to submit to the blood testing Mayweather originally requested during fight negotiations in 2009.

“I brought that [drug testing] to the front, not just in boxing but in sports,” Mayweather said. “I made people aware of being treated fair. I know myself that anything can happen, but for a guy to beat me, he must beat me honestly, beat me the right away. I think that every fighter should do what I did.”

Mayweather feels Pacquiao’s well-documented financial issues have played a significant role in why the Filipino is now pushing for the fight. He also portrays his foe as a puppet in the grand scheme of things, with De La Hoya and Arum pulling the strings. Mayweather relishes being his own boss and making his career choices -- a luxury he says Pacquiao cannot afford.

“His back is against the ropes now,” Mayweather said. “We all know he has financial problems; he has problems with the IRS. It’s crazy. It’s really, really crazy that people have been misled. I think that Oscar De La Hoya and Bob Arum are very intimidated by me, Al Haymon and Richard Schaefer and Stephen Espinoza working together. I’m in control. When I say I’m ready to go, I’m ready to go. Pacquiao fights when Bob Arum tells him he has to fight. I fight when I want to fight; I move when I want to move. It’s a great thing about my career.”

Mayweather is also well aware of how Pacquiao has failed to draw large pay-per-view numbers lately -- a problem the current WBC welterweight and junior middleweight champion does not have. Mayweather thinks his record speaks for itself.

“I’m capable of having a bad pay-per-view night, but I’m not going to have six consecutive bad pay-per-view nights,” Mayweather said. “What’s so crazy is the last time I checked, I hold the record for pay-per-view; I hold the record for highest gross at the gate; I hold the record for making the most money in one night.”

Even with all the success, Mayweather has enjoyed to this point in his career, he still feels he has been a victim of racism within the sport of boxing. As a result, he believes has showcased only a fraction of what he could have accomplished.

“There is a lot of racism that goes on in the sport of boxing, because if I was a white American fighter, with the same aura, the same style, the same pizazz, I would be a multi-billionaire,” he said. “So when you look at what goes on in Ferguson, [Mo.], what goes on in New York City or just in America in a day’s time, I try not to get in anyone else’s business because I don’t want anyone in my business.”

It seems like now or never for Mayweather-Pacquiao. Considering how willing the 37-year-old appears to be about scheduling the bout, one cannot help but expect there to be more of a drawn-out conclusion to making one of the most anticipated matchups in modern boxing history a reality.