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Home » The reason Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao didn’t happen for years

The reason Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao didn’t happen for years

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Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao smashed all records when it finally took place in 2015, but many suggest it was far too late.

The consensus among some is that Mayweather and Pacquiao should have fought between 2008-2010 when their powers heightened.

Pacquiao was demolishing 154-pounders at that time. However, Mayweather was in and out of the sport and contemplating retirement until a huge Showtime deal came along.

Not so, according to Floyd Mayweather’s CEO Leonard Ellerbe, who jumped on the very notion of the delay.

It all began with a comment from CNN executive Rick Seara and snowballed from there.

“I have to disagree respectfully. Pacquiao was a shell with the injury he said he had with his shoulder, and the fight was 5-7 years too late,” said Rick Seara.

Ellerbe came straight back with: “There you go with the bs narrative. So why didn’t the fight get made 5-7 years earlier, asking for a friend?

Seara responded: “I’m not arguing with you at all. For it not being made back then, in my opinion, was the fear factor of losing and having that glow off of Pacquiao.

“If you know what I mean. It was always better to hint at the possibility of it to get more mileage. I have my thoughts about the shoulder,” Seara added.

Reiterating exactly why the fight didn’t take place years earlier, Ellerbe stated: “The fight didn’t get made because we couldn’t agree on drug testing!!!”

Floyd Mayweather Manny Pacquiao Pay Per View
Naoki Fukuda

FLOYD MAYWEATHER vs. MANNY PACQUIAO

That reason was backed up by Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach when speaking to HBO’s The Fight Game years later.

“At first, there was a blood problem, Manny not wanting to give blood testing because he didn’t like that at first,” explained Roach.

“When we lost our first fight together, he forgot to do the blood testing before the fight, so he had to do it the day before.

“The commission demanded that he do it the day before. He said, ‘if I’m going to give blood, I’m not going to be back for three or four days.’

“He had it in his mind that would make him weak and so forth. And he felt that’s why he lost that fight. And he kind of mentally thought that would make him weak.

“The initial negotiations were probably our fault for not going so well because of the blood issues. After that we offered everything.

“We even offered a 60-40 split at one time. I think we ok’d that at one time.

“He just has been silent since that moment, never said nothing, and never talks about Manny Pacquiao in fights.”

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