Manny pays no heed to latest Floyd uproar

Manny Pacquiao wants to focus on his May 7 fight with Shane Mosley and steer clear of any distraction that he doesn’t want to talk or hear anything about Floyd Mayweather Jr.

“At this stage, my concentration is on my fight against Mosley,” Pacquiao told reporters who sought his reaction on Mayweather’s alleged demand of $100 million for him to fight the Filipino icon.

“I’m not thinking about it (fight with Mayweather) although somebody is trying to fix it maybe in November or probably next year,” said Pacquiao.

But Top Rank top honcho Bob Arum said Mayweather’s “asking price” could just be a ploy not to make the fight possible since the flamboyant American fighter is said to be afraid of staking his unbeaten record against a fighter of Pacquiao’s caliber.

“We had some negotiations before with Don King but the talks never pushed through because Mayweather is asking for a figure so high that even Pacquiao would get nothing from the fight,” Arum said.

Talks of the Pacquiao-Mayweather clash was previously shelved after the 32-year-old Mayweather demanded that he and Pacquiao undergo an Olympic-style drug testing.

With Mayweather out of the equation, Top Rank is currently negotiating for Pacquiao’s third fight with Juan Manuel Marquez, who has an issue to settle with the Filipino champion following the outcome of their first two meetings in 2004, which ended in a draw and 2008 which he lost in controversial fashion.

Meanwhile, in his 10th day of training yesterday, Pacquiao did another road workout in the morning at Sta Lucia Golf and Country Estates and took on mitts in the afternoon. – Artemio Dumlao

Source: http://www.philstar.com/