Advertisement

Mayweather Demands 'Making Pacquiao Angry'

Mayweather Demands 'Making Pacquiao Angry'

Floyd Mayweather's demands have made Manny Pacquiao "angry" ahead of their much-anticipated bout on 2 May.

The Filipino's trainer, Freddie Roach, revealed his fighter had become frustrated with his unbeaten opponent following confirmation of their bout last month.

A fight between the men considered to be the world's best pound-for-pound boxers had been held up for years due to disagreements over drug testing and purse splits.

Pacquiao has agreed to abide by Olympic-style testing in the run-up to the fight and underwent the first of his random tests in front of a Philippine television crew on Saturday.

But Mayweather's insistence on controlling every pre-fight detail has left a lasting impression on Pacquiao, according to Roach, who says he has never seen his eight-weight world champion more motivated.

"I can see it in his eyes, in his body movement, his attitude in training that he really wants to win and win decisively," he told philboxing.com.

"Sometimes, I cannot help but think he's mad at this guy.

"I can feel when we're doing the mitts. With the way he hits the mitts, I can see it on how he responds to the things we want him to do. The efforts he has been doing which I didn't see in his previous similarly important fights.

"I've never seen him dislike an opponent in my life, but you know what, he doesn't like this guy. He won't say anything bad about him, but he won't say anything good about him either. I think Mayweather is his perfect opponent.

"Manny's anger could be because everything has to be his (Mayweather's) way. He has a comfort zone, like we couldn't say anything about the fight until he announced it. He is very, very insecure."

It comes after the pair held a joint news conference, at which it was revealed ticket prices will range from $1,500 (£1,005) to $7,500 (£5,023).

Roach repeated his belief that "the whole world will be disappointed" by a Mayweather win, while Pacquiao claimed he had identified gaps in his opponent's famously impenetrable defence.

"If it's his defence he'll be relying on, I can say this early that I'm ready to meet him in that department," Pacquiao said.

"We've actually been figuring out how we can penetrate the defensive blanket Floyd will throw at me.

"I think we already have an idea of what offensive manoeuvres we will utilise. We will be concentrating on finding the flaws in his defence. I think we have discovered a lot."

:: Read our list of the 10 most-hyped fights in boxing history