"A month ago, Pacquiao said he would take a cut to fight me," stated undefeated pound-for-pound champion Floyd Mayweather in the latest post on his official Twitter page. Evidently, Mayweather is of the opinion that 8-division world champion Manny Pacquiao is reneging on a previous offer to take a smaller percentage of the revenue in order to make the mega-fight a reality. This latest announcement from Mayweather comes on the heals of an ESPN report regarding an email that he reportedly sent, explaining that he informed Pacquiao that he would not be getting a 50-50 split during their telephone conversation.
"Now that I called him out, he wants a big piece? Read this: http://tiny.cc/650ea," Mayweather continued in the post. Although at the time of this writing, the link he provided was not working, one can assume that Mayweather was probably directing his followers to read an article that was posted in the Manila Bulletin on December 17, where Pacquiao informed reporter Nick Giongco that he essentially had no problems with taking the "smaller prize" because "making the fight" was all that mattered. While Mayweather may point to Pacquiao's comments in December, Pacquiao himself made it clear to Mayweather just days ago over the phone that he had no problems facing him "anytime" so long as they split the revenue 50/50.
For those fans that were actually optimistic that both sides would finally come to the table to resume negotiations, this latest announcement from Mayweather will all but kills those dreams if it means he is unwilling to do an even split. Promoter Bob Arum has made it crystal clear for the past 3 years that regardless of his fighter's willingness to bend, there's no way the mega-fight would happen with anything less than a 50/50 split of all revenue. While Mayweather didn't necessarily rule out the possibility, it certainly doesn't look promising. Regardless, it was doubtful that the fight would take place on May 5 anyway as promoter Bob Arum reiterated that Mayweather would have to "get off this May 5 date" even after the two fighters spoke to each other on the phone.
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