Mayweather Vs. Cotto: Is Constant Pacquiao Talk Distracting Floyd?

Floyd Mayweather is ready to step into the ring on Saturday night live on HBO pay-per-view and try to add one more win to his undefeated 42-0 record when he takes on Miguel Cotto. To do so, he’ll have to go up to 154 pounds, a weight he hasn’t fought at since fighting Oscar De La Hoya in the fight that made him into the superstar he is.

But for all the risk involved with going up to face the top junior middleweight in the sport, Floyd can’t escape talk of the fight that isn’t happening. A mega-fight with Manny Pacquiao.

The topic came up once again during a talk with ESPN:

From the video:

That’s a fight that I did want, that’s a fight I’ve been trying to get. But there’s been so many excuses. I’m not asking for much. All I ask is, can you take the test? It was like ‘okay, well, I’ll fight Floyd for less money, but I don’t wanna take the test.’ Then it’s like ‘okay, if I take the test, I want 50-50. But I don’t want to take the test the day before the fight.’ If the guy really wanted the fight he’d have stepped up to the table and we’d have made this happen. They say Floyd only want to fight fighters when they’re over the hill. Well? What about me? I’m a little bit older.

I just fought Victor Ortiz and it’s another excuse. He didn’t have enough experience. So, I’m always in a no-win situation. I tried to make the Pacquiao fight happen, but I can’t constantly chase fighters.

The Pacquiao talk is clearly getting to Floyd. When meeting with reporters yesterday, he want on a rant about Manny. First, complaining about his opinion that Pacquiao has used steroids, saying “Come on, it’s basic common sense now. Guess what, it took me years to get to here. Go back and look at the pictures. His head is small and then all of a sudden his head just grew? Come on man, stop this. Ray Charles can see this shit. Go back and look at the pictures and tell me this man’s head didn’t get bigger. You’re going to tell me this shit is all natural. Come on man, stop.”

But it continued into a betrayal that Floyd feels from American media and boxing fans. “These are the American people who don’t stand behind me. They stand behind these foreigners. I get more love in the UK. Ya’ll know this is bullshit. People just say ‘we don’t give a fuck if he’s taking it or not, we just want to see a fight. We don’t give a fuck about your health. We don’t give a fuck about your family.” Floyd continued “When my career is over, you’re going to move on to the next and write about the next motherfucker. That’s exactly what is going to happen.”

While some media are falling into dramatics when speaking about Floyd’s upcoming jail sentence, where he’ll likely serve six of his nine month sentence and be kept separate from the riffraff, it seems everything around him involves things that aren’t Miguel Cotto.

While Floyd is an understandably heavy favorite, distraction remains a major stumbling block. He’s shown he can be wobbled, Shane Mosley got to his chin in the first round of their fight, and while Cotto didn’t take his 140 pound power up to 154, he still can bang a little. Floyd had better be serious that he is focused on Cotto and training as hard as ever.

It just seems like a real possibility that Floyd is in a fight with Manny in his head as much as he will be with Miguel in the ring.