Pacquiao and Mayweather: May 2 bout
Pacquiao is in training in General Santos City in the Philippines, and started a few days before Mayweather announced the fight was a go last Friday. The media has been in the gym he’s working out in to take the requisite photos of the boxer on the skipping rope and doing strength and conditioning exercises.
So what have U.S. media been photographing Mayweather doing? Eating hot dogs as he sits courtside at NBA games. The big-time basketball fan was at an L.A. Lakers home game at the Staples Center on Sunday night and went back to the same venue the following night to see an L.A. Clippers game (the Staples Center is home court for both those clubs).
Floyd Mayweather: 38th birthday
Tuesday was Mayweather’s 38th birthday — Pacquiao is 36 — so maybe he’s celebrating before beginning his own training regimen. The fight is about nine weeks away and getting into the gym with his trainer, father Freddie Mayweather Sr., is the next thing on his to-do list.
Mayweather Sr. has gone on record saying that his son will win in part because Pacquiao is too small. He also chastised Pacquiao for being knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez, who Mayweather beat handily.
“The man ain’t knocked nobody out in five years,” Floyd Mayweather Sr. told fighthype about Pacquiao. “And the same guy that knocked his (rear) ice cold, Floyd beat him 12 rounds easy. If he was struggling with Marquez then, that boy ain’t got a chance in hell. I’m just telling you the truth, man. He’s so damn short. Floyd’s going to make him look like a baby.”
Mayweather Sr. also offered up an eight-line poem to fighthype ending with these two lines: “My son’s future is very bright, Manny’s looks more like night night.”
For the record, Mayweather Jr. is 5 ft 8in. (1.73 cm.) tall and has a reach of 72 in. (183 cm.). The difference in height isn’t that great as Pacquiao is listed as 5 ft 6 1⁄2 in. (169 cm.) with a reach of 67 in. (170 cm.).
Naturally Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach said his fighter will win, though he didn’t talk about height. “I have to come up with a perfect game plan for this one. This is gonna be the biggest challenge ever,” he said last week. “But I like a challenge and I think my guy can pull if off, but it won’t be easy.”
Both fighters have been exercising their fingers, each taking to social media to say, not surprisingly, they will win. They’ll be more hype as the fight nears, with the next big news event likely to be Pacquiao traveling to L.A. to begin six weeks of boxing-specific training at Roach’s gym.
