50 Cent Says Floyd Mayweather ‘Ducked’ Manny Pacquiao

By: Amanda Anderson-Niles

It’s always been speculated that Floyd Mayweather ducked Manny Pacquiao throughout his career as an undefeated professional boxer. Although Pacquiao did get knocked out recently by Juan Manuel Márquez, many of Mayweather’s critics feel he purposely avoided fighting Pacquiao because he wanted to hold on to his undefeated label considering his record is the biggest reason his brand has been able to accumulate so much wealth in the boxing industry. Before Pacquiao’s knockout, many felt he was one of the few boxers that posed a risk of putting an end to Mayweather’s perfect record.

As we recently reported, rapper 50 Cent and Floyd Mayweather’s friendship has gone sour, and both have been taking shots at one another on Twitter and in their recent interviews. 50 claimed the problems in the friendship are a result of a bad business deal, while Floyd seems to feel like 50 is just being over the top and looking for attention. Although both now claim they are just going through a rough patch in their relationship and will most likely still have a friendship post the beef, 50 went on ESPN’s First Take this morning and talked about his rough friendship with Floyd and he also chimed in on whether or not he feels Floyd ducked Pacquiao.

And according to 50, Floyd did duck Pacquiao, and he says the move was nothing more than business. The rapper claims Floyd didn’t want to risk losing his perfect record which had led him to financial success. 50 also suggested that Floyd would pick fighters that he felt he had a better chance of beating, just so he could stretch out his wins.

When asked by Skip Bayless if he believed Floyd Mayweather ducked Pacquiao, he says:

“Yes he did. That’s a $100 million and he just left it.

“He concentrates on how much someone else is getting paid opposed to how much he’s actually getting paid and then he kind of sees himself in a space that no one else sees him in…that’s he so higher on top of it that he shouldn’t actually give some of the other great fighters the opportunity to be in the position at this point.

“He’s not afraid of Pacquiao or any fighter. I think it’s more of him saying, ‘Who do I have to fight?’ It’s more of him sorting out who’s the perfect opponent than him fighting who’s the toughest person to fight.

“This is more of business and making the right financial decision..and how do you stretch out how many wins on your record.”

Despite 50 stating that he feels Mayweather ducked the fight, he also said he still thinks Floyd Mayweather would have beaten Pacquiao two years ago in the ring.

Check out a clip from the interview below: