Doghouse Boxing - Dog Pound

By Kevin Iole, Yahoo Sports

LAS VEGAS – Boxing legend Roy Jones Jr. hasn't had a bad personal relationship with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the past, but that may be about to change.

The former four-division champion lauded Manny Pacquiao for taking risks and seeking out fights that would be history making, while he said Mayweather is simply more concerned with being unbeaten.

Pacquiao weighed in at a career-high 147 on Friday, not looking nearly as ripped as his opponent, Timothy Bradley. Bradley, whose physique was so heavily muscled that he could have passed for a Mr. Olympia contender, weighed 146 for their pay-per-view welterweight title bout Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden.

Jones said Bradley is a high-risk opponent who is more difficult for Pacquiao than Mayweather would be. Boxing fans have lusted after a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight for more than three years, but the sides have never been able to reach agreement.

Jones, who won titles at middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight and was considered the pound-for-pound best boxer in the world for nearly a decade, said during an interview Friday on Yahoo! Sports Radio he didn't think Mayweather wanted the Pacquiao fight.

And, Jones added, Mayweather doesn't particularly care what the public or the media thinks about it.
"Obviously he doesn't, or he would have fought Pacquiao already," said Jones, who will meet Dawid Kostecki on June 30 in Poland in a cruiserweight bout.

[Related: Timothy Bradley unconcerned about Manny Pacquiao's rumored PEDs use]

He said Pacquiao had taken on high-risk fights, singling out his 2010 super welterweight fight with Antonio Margarito and Saturday's bout with Bradley. Jones also said that when Mayweather failed to jump in and prevent Pacquiao from taking those matches, it sent off alarm bells.
Margarito was far too big for Pacquiao, who could make the lightweight limit of 135 pounds if he needed to do so. Asked if it were a matchmaking mistake pairing fighters of such distinctly different sizes, Jones said it was not because of what was at stake for Pacquiao with a win.

"It wasn't a mistake, [because] he wanted to accomplish history," Jones said. "He wanted to go up and be an eight-class world champion, so that's a part of what you have to go through. … Floyd Mayweather never said he wanted to make history. He said he wanted to go down undefeated.
"Manny Pacquiao takes on whoever comes. Manny Pacquiao don't have to fight this fight [against Bradley] right now. And trust me, this fight is a bigger risk of [Pacquiao] losing than fighting a Floyd Mayweather in his case, because Timothy Bradley is more dangerous than Mayweather would be."

Jones said that is because Bradley is known for head butts and that head butts are very common in fights pitting a left-hander like Pacquiao against a right-hander such as Bradley.

The butts will increase the risk of a Pacquiao loss, but Jones said a win would demonstrate that perhaps Pacquiao and not Mayweather deserves to be regarded as the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world.

"Timothy Bradley is an orthodox fighter who has a problem with his head when he fights other orthodox fighters," Jones said. "So imagine what's going to happen when he fights a southpaw. The first issue an orthodox fighter and a southpaw fighter have is worrying about head butts. With that being said, then you have a guy [Bradley] who is an undefeated fighter, never lost. And even in the head butt situations that he has had, he never lost one of them either.

"That's a problem everywhere [Bradley] goes, and [Pacquiao] didn't have to take this fight, but he took it because he wanted to prove he's the best fighter around. Floyd Mayweather, on the other hand, said he's the best fighter around, but he's not proving it by taking on the best opponents around. He's just showing through his words he thinks he's the best fighter around."

[TopRank.TV: Watch Manny Pacquiao fight Timothy Bradley live on PPV]

Jones said that if he were in Mayweather's shoes and had a mega-event against Pacquiao looming, he would not allow Pacquiao to take a fight in which he might lose.

In Jones' view, the fact that Mayweather continued to sit by as Pacquiao fought those fights proves he wasn't that interested in Pacquiao.

"When I saw Pacquiao getting ready to fight Margarito, I said, 'Here's the way I look at this,' If I'm Floyd Mayweather and I really want to beat this dude [Pacquiao], I don't let him go in the ring with Antonio Margarito because Margarito's too big. If Margarito beats him, [the Pacquiao-Mayweather] fight's out the door. [Mayweather] let [Pacquiao] go in there anyway. So what does that tell you? He don't care what people think about him. He don't care if he fights him or not. He doesn't.

"Hey, look, right now, he wouldn't be fighting Timothy Bradley if I thought I could whip him, because I'd be afraid, 'What if Timothy Bradley won?' Timothy Bradley-Mayweather is not nearly as big as Pacquiao-Mayweather."

sadly most floyd fans will use this thread to personally attack jones rather than admitting that some of his points are valid.

Works both ways,  Floyd has gone on to fight pretty much exactly the same fighters that Pac has fought whilst Pac watched and waited and brought up excuses about being afraid of needles.  They both have acted like they don't want the fight.

And on that note,  every fucker should shut the fuck up and talk about fights that are actually going to happen.

Spike, on 09 June 2012 - 05:10 AM, said:

Have to say it is rich coming from reluctant Roy though,  who wasted a good portion of his prime humming and arghing over 60/40 splits just like Floyd is doing.

ROCKYMARSHMELLOW, on 09 June 2012 - 05:23 AM, said:

true but at least the guy he was arguing splits with was a guy he had already defeated, and its not like roy didn't take some risky fights in its place. for example roy could have easily avoided tarver after the high he was on coming off of the ruiz win. and even a hops fan like myself would have to admit roy had more of a case getting the bigger split vs hops than floyd does over pac, not to mention floyd- pac will probably shatter PPV records which was not the case with roy.

ROCKYMARSHMELLOW, on 09 June 2012 - 05:18 AM, said:

i see its started already

Spike, on 09 June 2012 - 05:37 AM, said:

Still a big portion of Jones's career he was labelled reluctant Roy,  and he was fighting stiffs at 175 when the boxing fans wanted to see other fights.  He obviously took some risky fights in his career,  but so has Mayweather.  If anyone should know about how politics and negotiations can stop a fight from happening it's Roy.

ROCKYMARSHMELLOW, on 09 June 2012 - 05:42 AM, said:

thats all true which is exactly why i said fans like you would use this as a place to attack roy , but to be fair roy nevr avoided a fight of the magnitude of a floyd- pac fight. i kind of think in a case like that roy finds a way to make the fight happen.

Spike, on 09 June 2012 - 05:41 AM, said:

So you too much of a fan boy to admit that Pac and his team acted suspiciously when asked if they would take extra doping tests,  all that crap about him being a afraid of needles etc.   That was some hilarious shit.   Mayweather is no better,  when Pac finally comes round to taking the tests he moves the goal posts and wants 60/40 or that 40 million crap he is spouting.   Both have acted like they don't want to risk it.  

All that crap Mayweather comes out with about his health,  you can literally smell the diarrhea running down his leg.  Pac's said he'll take the tests, so fucking get on with it you pussy.

Spike, on 09 June 2012 - 05:47 AM, said:

Difference in attacking him with no common sense behind what I'm saying,  and then pointing out old reluctant Roy was notorious himself for being a cock when it came to negotiations and many of fight didn't happen due to this.  Larry Merchant used to do exactly the same shit to Roy as he did to Floyd,  he used to accuse him of not taking the toughest fights out there,  and he also used to accuse him of being boring.  

If you say I can't speak the truth without you going into fan boy mode,  then sorry, that's your problem.

ROCKYMARSHMELLOW, on 09 June 2012 - 05:48 AM, said:

nope , unlike most in here im not a fan boy of either of these fighters , just want to see the fight, yeah pac acted suspiciously but thats old news man. and if you want to talk about suspicious i kind of find it suspicious that floyd even asked that shit of manny. oh yeah i forgot floyd is a trailblazer worried about fighter safety

ROCKYMARSHMELLOW, on 09 June 2012 - 05:23 AM, said:

Slightly unfair as jones had already decisively beaten hopkins

Spike, on 09 June 2012 - 05:47 AM, said:

When Roy was in the same position as Floyd,   i.e.  unbeaten, recognised by many as PFP no.1,  he had the exactly the same ego as Floyd and fans and commentators complained about exactly the same shit.  

They both acted like their shit didn't stink.   Roy changed his approach later in his career but by then it was too late and we were seeing a shell of the fighter.  If he wasn't such a dick when he was on top we would of seen a lot more of those fights we wanted to see.  So please excuse me for pointing out the blatant the pot calling the kettle black scenario here.  

scarecrow, on 09 June 2012 - 05:58 AM, said:

He was still doing the same shit though.  He was still notorious for being a chod when it came to negotiations with fighters,  HBO,  and had a ego which could only rival Mayweather's.