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On ESPN's First Take this morning, Manny Pacquiao said he'd be willing to take the lesser end of a 55-45 split to finally make a fight with Floyd Mayweather happen, and also said he's willing to do "whatever (Floyd) wants" with drug testing. From RingTV.com:
"I want that fight to happen. I don't know what's the reason why that fight has not happened...It's okay for me if he gets the higher percentage than me," said Pacquiao, on ESPN's First Take on Thursday.
...(D)uring the ESPN interview, Pacquiao said that he would agree to full, random drug testing "No problem. Whatever he wants...no problem. Even the the night of the fight, no problem."
Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KO) seemingly had his chance for a Mayweather fight lessened when he dropped a controversial decision to Timothy Bradley in June, but that didn't last long -- it's still the fight in boxing, and the loss to Bradley has not hurt Pacquiao's marketability, it appears. Manny will face Juan Manuel Marquez for a fourth time on December 8 at the MGM Grand, live on HBO pay-per-view.
With 50 Cent recently speaking with Pacquiao, the idea has been that their conversations could lead to The Fight finally being made. But of course, 50 and Pacquiao speaking followed the quick demise of TMT Promotions, which allegedly was due to some serious disagreements with Mayweather on a personal and/or professional level. Still, Mayweather and 50 have not said anything harshly in public about one another.
I mean, it's possible. It's out there. Mayweather has not indicated much of anything about his boxing career since his release from jail, and has never said he'd do a 55-45 split with Pacquiao on a fight, either. Floyd doesn't deal in splits really -- he has a set amount of money plus his percentages, and generally opponents get a set amount of money, but we did see with Miguel Cotto -- who didn't need the Floyd fight the way Victor Ortiz did, for instance -- that opponents can get upside on a pay-per-view with them when they're worth their own money. Obviously, Pacquiao is worth his own money.
There are so many reasons this won't happen, and most of you are familiar with all of them by now (it's been three-plus years of this fight being demanded or at least greatly desired), so I won't go into them again. But it's still out there. It'll always be out there.