 has poured scorn on the idea of a Floyd Mayweather versus Manny Pacquiao rematch, saying the fight would lack the action of his recent 12-round fight with the Filipino superstar.){kind=link}
Former WBA welterweight champion Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman 29-1 (22) has poured scorn on the idea of a Floyd Mayweather versus Manny Pacquiao rematch, saying the fight would lack the action of his recent 12-round fight with the Filipino superstar.
Thurman dropped a split decision to Pacquiao at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas last month in what was just his second bout in more than two years.
In an interview with TMZ the 30-year-old from Clearwater, Florida insisted the world wasn’t interested in seeing Mayweather face Pacquiao again after their first fight in 2015 resulted in a clear-cut points win for the American in what was widely panned as a boring fight.
“Mayweather does whatever Mayweather wants to do, it’s what he’s been doing for years,” Thurman said.
“Floyd, he’s just defensive. He’s gonna be defensive, he’s gonna put Pac on the offensive, he’s gonna make him miss, he’s gonna make him pay.
“The only disadvantage Floyd has right now is that he’s an inactive athlete and Pacquiao’s active. I think I helped him with his fight with me. He was highly active and I’ve been inactive. So being inactive again against an active fighter, even if it’s a 40-year-old Manny Pacquiao, it’s still activity and it helps.
So I don’t like Floyd jumping back in the ring with inactivity like that, but you know he’s going to do whatever he wants to do, man. That’s Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather.”
While Thurman conceded there was still a market for the fight, he insisted that real fight fans wouldn’t be interested in tuning in.
“At the end to the day, nobody wants to see it,” Thurman said. “Why they want to see it? All they’re going to talk about is how much money they can make, how big the fight is.
“I’m not saying you can’t promote the fight, but real fight fans know, it ain’t gonna be more exciting then what Keith Thurman just did (against Pacquiao).”
When pushed for a pick, Thurman said: “I’m not going to pick Pacquiao. Floyd is just smart, forever smart, you know? So it’s always going to be a challenge.”