Jeff Mayweather: Manny Pacquiao will win, but he's not fighting fair
Members of the Mayweather clan continue to weigh-in on Saturday’s mega-bout between sensation Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito.
In a boxingscene.com interview, Jeff Mayweather, who trains featherweight champion Celestino Caballero, said that after watching footage of Margarito he believes “The Tijuana Tornado” will be weight-drained
when he meets “Pacman” in the ring.
"I think that Margarito is going to be drained,” Mayweather said. "I was watching [HBO’s] 24/7 and he was already shredded. I don't know where he's going to lose those pounds. I think that's going to be
the biggest Achilles’ heel for him. This is one of those situations where, who knows if Margarito can really punch.”
For months the Mayweather camp, including Floyd Mayweather Jr. and trainer Roger, has accused Pacquiao of unjustly winning world titles by fighting opponents at unreasonable weights. They claim that while
Pacquiao has moved up in weight in fights (against Miguel Cotto and Joshua Clottey, for instance) his opponents are often forced to drain themselves to make weight against him because he forces them to sign catchweight contracts at lower limits than the divisions
normally allow. This gives “Pacman” an unfair fighting advantage. Margarito will be forced to fight at 151lb rather than the normal limit of 154.
Mayweather continued: “Nobody knows how long he was using those hand wraps. I lean towards Pacquiao because he's a lot faster and once again he's making a guy kill himself to get down to the weight, like
he did with [Oscar] De La Hoya.”
That's a reference to the famous controversy which Margarito, who was caught with illegally loaded hand wraps before a fight with Sugar Shane Mosley.
"It's one of those situations where neither guy has any defense, but if [Pacquiao] box like he did with De La Hoya, he should beat Margarito easy,” Mayweather contended. “I just think that Margarito is
too slow. The thing is that Manny is not the most technical fighter, but he does know how to get in and get out. That's all he has to do. Like I said, Margarito is going to be extremely slow in comparison to Pacquiao."
In the nineties Mayweather fought as a lightweight. He was defeated by young and nimble De la Hoya in 1993, at a time when “The Golden Boy” was competing in his fifth professional fight.