Floyd turns down $65M to fight Manny

A MUCH-awaited super fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. won’t happen anytime soon as the 34-year-old African-American superstar once again turned down a hefty offer of $65 million to face the pound-for-pound king.

“I’m an optimist, and I always felt that they’d eventually fight. At this point, I really feel that they’d never fight,” Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum told ABS-CBN. “As recently as this week, people from Singapore offered Mayweather $65 million to fight Manny Pacquiao and he turned it down.”

Arum said Mayweather Jr. has priced himself too high and has given so many ridiculous demands but even with the huge amount of money offered to him, he still passed on it.

“Sixty-five million is obviously a sum Manny Pacquiao would accept. So what does that tell you? It tells you he (Mayweather) doesn’t want to fight Manny Pacquiao,” said the veteran American promoter who runs Top Rank.

In initial negotiation for Pacquiao and Mayweather Jr. mega fight, both fighters couldn’t come to terms because of the Olympic-style drug testing demanded by Mayweather Jr.

“He doesn’t want to fight Manny. He’s smart not to fight Manny because, truth be told, everyone who knows boxing know that Manny will beat him,” said Arum.

Pacquiao is slated to face Juan Manuel Marquez on Nov. 12 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, while Mayweather has been on hiatus for over a year after defeating Shane Mosley in 2010.

“One thing about Floyd: Floyd knows boxing, and Floyd knows style. That’s why Floyd was always reticent about fighting a southpaw. And a southpaw like Manny Pacquiao, he wants no part of because even if he protects himself from his left, he’s going to bang him with his right hand.”