Floyd Mayweather Jr. seemed all pumped up for his upcoming welterweight clash with Robert Guerrero which takes place this Saturday, but it was a comment he made about another fighter, Manny Pacquiao, that created some buzz during an interview with ESPN on Monday.
Oozing with confidence as ever, the 36-year old Mayweather said he offered Pacquiao a chance to pocket $40 million for a date in the ring with him before the Filipino champ absorbed a sixth-round knockout loss to Mexican rival Juan Manuel Marquez.
"I called Pacquiao and offered him $40 million dollars and this came before the Marquez fight." Mayweather told ESPN on Monday. "I told him I would have his $20 million without 48 hours. He told me he wanted 50-50 and got off the phone."
Mayweather, who engaged in a number of failed negotiations with Top-Rank promotions to pull off a mega-buck showdown with Pacquiao, brought up again the allegation that Pacquiao has taken performance enhancing drugs over the course of his career.
"I'm not scared of no fighter, but where was the guy when I was dominating the sport in 98, 99 and 96? Mayweather told ESPN. "This guy was never heard of. This guy just popped out of nowhere just walking through the bigger, stronger fighters, and the guy comes from 105. Are you serious? Once again, I never said he took anything. All I said is I want to be on an even playing field. There's no blueprint in how to beat me. I can crack any Da Vinci code when I'm in the ring."
The five-division world champion is scheduled to take on interim WBC welterweight champion Roberto 'The Ghost' Guerrero at MGM Grand on Saturday. This marks the first bout of the six-fight pay-per-view deal Mayweather signed with HBO this year.
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