Mayweather won't fight Pacquiao for even money

Floyd Mayweather Jr. said again during a conference call for his September 19 fight with Juan Manuel Marquez that there's no way he'll fight Manny Pacquiao with a 50-50 purse split.

"I feel Manny Pacquiao is a good fighter, he does his job to the best of his ability. Many people forget that Manny Pacquiao got beat by Erik Morales. I am still at the top of my game and I have never been beat. He hasn't done anything that I haven't done."

"I don't really have anything bad to say about Pacquaio. He never called me out. Everyone knows it's not hard to find me."

The "no 50-50" part isn't the most interesting thing to me, it's Floyd's misunderstanding of what makes fighters worth the most money. No one has ever forgotten that Pacquiao lost to Erik Morales. What happened there is Pacquiao twice avenged that defeat by stopping Morales inside the distance, including a rubber match where he blitzed him out while hardly breaking a sweat. Also, his loss to Morales and the rematch were both great fights, which made people want to -- you guessed it! -- spend money to see him fight again in the future.

Mayweather lives on the idea that wins = money, which isn't always the case. Winky Wright is a great fighter but has never been an attraction. Bernard Hopkins has never been an attraction. Shane Mosley is a great fighter and a genuinely thrilling fighter to watch a lot of the time, and even he's never been a draw without a big opponent, which is also the case with Mayweather. There is a lot more than being good that goes into being a draw. Pacquiao once losing to Erik Morales doesn't diminish what he's accomplished. And again, great fighters lose when they take great risks. The other usual knock on Mayweather is he doesn't take risks.

Of course another way to get people to pay to see you is their desire to see you get beaten by someone, and he's pretty decent at that. Floyd plays heel, but sometimes I wonder where his line gets blurred, because he seems to genuinely want the admiration and glory of being remembered as one of the best.