Floyd Mayweather Jr. talks (and says little)
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Why have a conference call if no questions are going to be answered?
Floyd Mayweather Jr. took questions in a call today with reporters and added little to what was already known about him or his scheduled Sept. 19 fight against Juan Manuel Marquez.
What weight will that fight be at? The promoter, the manager and the fighter refused to say.
The bout was originally scheduled to happen Saturday, but then was delayed because Mayweather suffered an injury.
The fighter was able to reveal it was a ‘rib injury,’ but when pressed about how it happened, he said, ‘I’ll never tell.’ Pressed again -- was it hurt by a punch to the side or by hitting the heavy bag? -- Mayweather said, ‘I don’t have to go into depth.’ A publicist later called here to clarify that such information was too sensitive because it could give Marquez inside information that could help him win the fight.
By saying he got punched in training?
The unbeaten Mayweather had earlier addressed the super-fight that the boxing world would most like to see, a date early next year against the current pound-for-pound ‘champion’ Manny Pacquiao.
‘Bob Arum wants [a] 50-50 [purse split], that’s why we’ll never get that fight,’ Mayweather said.
If the fight is impossible to make, this is a newsworthy statement, of course, so I gave Mayweather the chance to elaborate on his longtime animosity with Pacquiao promoter Arum. Mayweather split with Arum a few years ago, complaining that the promoter kept him off pay TV and locked him into a bad contract.
‘We don’t like to negotiate our personal business, but everybody knows [Pacquiao] is not going to get a 50-50 with Floyd Mayweather,’ Mayweather said.
Of course, the Mayweather-Marquez fight still has tickets available, and Team Pacquiao will be watching closely to see how Mayweather’s pay-per-view numbers perform now that he’s not fighting as marketable an opponent as either of his last two foes, Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton.
Later, Mayweather’s people called The Times to explain that Mayweather would of course negotiate with Arum once Pacquiao is available. Pacquiao is in negotiations for a tentative Nov. 14 fight against Miguel Cotto.
-- Lance Pugmire
