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Manny Pacquiao says he wants the rematch with Floyd Mayweather...after he's 100% healthy. Upon hearing the news that Mayweather said that he would give Pacquiao a rematch (via text message to Stephen A. Smith), Manny wasted no time is saying that he wants to take him up on that offer. He also inexplicably continues to say that he really won the fight this past Saturday (*sigh*). Speaking with ABS-CBN news, Pacquiao gave the following statements:
"I'm happy that he [Mayweather] OK'ed the rematch, but first I have to fix my shoulder," Pacquiao said. "The doctor said that for me to be 100%, I have to rest four to six months," he added. "We might have lost on paper, but we won the fight."
Look - don't even get me started on that last part. I really like Pacquiao but he's acting like a petulant child here and I can't remember him ever being such a sore loser. This wasn't any reincarnation of Pacquiao-Bradley I with some sort of bogus decision. Manny lost this fight clearly and fairly, period. Maybe he thinks he can perform better once he's 100% and that's perfectly fine, but when are fighters ever 100%? When it's not the shoulder, it's the leg cramps for Pacquiao. For Mayweather, when it's not his shoulders or ribs, it's his hands. Even Gennady Golvokin had to fight Gabriel Rosado while recovering from the flu. That's just the nature of the sport. Fighters enter the ring with ailments practically every time out.
I myself would love for them to rematch only when they're both 100% healthy -- meaning that we'll never have to expect for the rematch to happen. I'm not so sure I can cope with another Mayweather-Pacquiao negotiation and build-up again. Especially not if I have to cover it...