Well, I have to say that I scored Round 1 of media day for Manny Pacquiao. Pacquiao provided just about all of the newsworthy sound bytes on media day, which came as a surprise to most people, including myself. I’m so used to Mayweather and Mayweather Sr. providing all of the smack talk.
Pacquiao appeared on the ESPN show His and Hers. When asked if he thought Ronda Rousey could beat Floyd Mayweather at MMA, he responded , “I believe so. She’s strong. She’s strong enough to beat Floyd Mayweather in MMA.” Incidentally, Rousey got a free ticket to the fight from Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum.
Pacquiao was also a guest on ESPN’s First Take where he stated the following to Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith – “I’m more worried about Cotto and De La Hoya than Mayweather.” Skip Bayless also asked the Pacman why the fight took so long to put together. “He’s afraid of losing,” Pacquiao said. “Floyd has a good hand speed but he’s not the same with his hand speed. But I have great hand speed and I have good footwork, so it’s combination. That’s my advantage.”
Co-Host Stephen A. Smith asked Pacquiao why he thinks it would be good for boxing to beat Mayweather. “Beating Floyd Mayweather is the best in boxing. Good for boxing. Good for boxing so, you know, sometimes, I’m not pointing anybody or, a lot of athletes, when they have success in their lives, the success goes to their head. I mean, I’m saying — I’m telling the truth. But, you know, I’m not pointing anybody, but most of the athletes, you know, a lot of athletes that, when they have success, great success in their lives, they change and their success goes to their head. So that’s good.”
Freddie Roach got involved in the banter also. At the press conference Freddie stated, “This is the biggest challenge of my life. I’ve been looking forward to this for a long, long time. We’re fighting the best fighter in the world, but we’re gonna kick his a**.” Wow.
Floyd Mayweather seemed unusually reserved for the occasion and to be honest, I didn’t really like his body language on stage during the faceoff or the actual press conference. He honestly appeared nervous. Pacquiao on the other hand, seemed very loose and extremely confident. One of the odd parts about the press conference yesterday is that Mayweather Sr. was seemingly not allowed to speak. He was introduced by Leonard Ellerbe and then got up to go to the microphone, but Ellerbe just kept talking, so Floyd Sr. sat down. It was pretty obvious they didn’t want him near the microphone yesterday.
