In an interview with FightHype, Floyd Mayweather Jr says that he feels Bob Arum is the man standing in the way of making a fight between himself and Manny Pacquiao, and while he claims he didn't see Saturday's Pacquiao vs Marquez fight, he had some thoughts on their rivalry, too.
On Arum:
"I personally think it's Bob Arum having a vendetta. I think he's very, very upset with me because, you know, I exposed and I opened the world's eyes up to different things."
Mayweather is referencing, of course, his nasty split from Top Rank years ago, where he was harsh about fighters being screwed by promoters. He also feels that in his time promoting himself since then -- with a big helping hand from Golden Boy, it should be noted -- he's shown that fighters don't need to work for promoters. That's his belief, and the fact is he pulls in a ton of money. Arum was famously of the belief that Mayweather lacked superstar quality. Say what you will about Bob, but he's not often wrong on superstar fighters he can market. He was wrong on Floyd, who feels to this day that Arum resents him for breaking free and being highly critical, and I'm sure he's probably right to some degree. It's not like they get along or anything. It's a legit issue.
On Pacquiao vs Marquez, and a possible fourth fight between the two:
"Why? I mean, I truly feel that Marquez is never going to get the benefit of the doubt. I want to congratulate Marquez and I want to congratulate Manny Pacquiao for doing it a third time, but I just feel like if you get it done right the first time, there's no need for a second or third fight. And if it is needed, do it again in the same fashion and in the same way, or do it even better."
I know this might sound weird at first, but Floyd can back this up. There have been two guys in his career who have really tested him. The first was Jose Luis Castillo in 2002, and they had an immediate rematch where Floyd won more convincingly, even though it was still a competitive, close fight. And the other was Oscar De La Hoya in 2007. They did sign up for a rematch, but Floyd instead went into one of his fake retirements. Public interest didn't seem all that high for the rematch, and I still think that's why they chose to call it off. But that's just my own gut feeling, and always has been. Anyway, I don't think many are sick over the fact that we never got that rematch. Oscar was gone by that point, and it was contracted to be at 147 pounds, where the "Golden Boy" looked fake bronze at best against Manny Pacquiao, who replaced Mayweather in the fight.
There's plenty more in there, including Floyd talking about the defamation lawsuit, steroids, Freddie Roach, and other topics.
Mayweather returns to the ring on May 5, 2012, and his team has said that they're hoping to get Pacquiao as the opponent. There have been no other strong rumors yet.