Mayweather calls Pacquiao a coward, says there won’t be a rematch

Floyd Mayweather Jr. took the high road Saturday night when he heard Manny Pacquiao said he had fought him with an injured right shoulder at the MGM Grand Garden, a fight Mayweather won by unanimous decision.

On Thursday, a day after Pacquiao had surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff in the shoulder, Mayweather decided it was time to speak out.

In an exclusive interview with Showtime that will air Saturday night, Mayweather called Pacquiao a “sore loser” and “coward” who is making excuses, and said he won’t grant him a rematch. Mayweather has one fight remaining on a six-fight contract he signed with Showtime in 2013.

“I’m not going to buy into the B.S. — and I don’t want the public to buy into the B.S.,” Mayweather told sportscaster Jim Gray. “He lost. He knows he lost. I lost a lot of respect for him after all of this.”

Mayweather said he didn’t see any issues with Pacquiao being able to use his right hand during their 12-round world welterweight unification title fight, which Mayweather won by scores of 118-110, 116-112 and 116-112.

“Absolutely not,” Mayweather said. “He was fast. His left hand was fast. His right hand was fast, and he was throwing them both fast and strong.”

Mayweather (48-0, 26 knockouts) said Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) can’t deal with the fact that he was soundly beaten.

“Excuses, excuses, excuses,” he said.

Mayweather wasn’t the only one sounding off on Pacquiao. Alex Ariza, Pacquiao’s former strength and conditioning coach who helped Mayweather prepare for the fight, said if Pacquiao was truly hurt, he wouldn’t have been able to throw punches with his right arm.

“What I saw was a guy throwing that right hand plenty,” Ariza told MLive.com. And he seemed to be doing fine with it. I didn’t see that he was trying to make adjustments. You know, when a guy hurts his hand, all of a sudden, he switches and he’ll work with that other hand, or he’ll lead with the left a little more.

“I would’ve noticed. I would’ve said, ‘Something’s wrong here. Why is he doing that?’ ”

Ariza, who worked 11 fights with Pacquiao from 2008 to 2013, said Pacquiao was just making excuses.

“Simply, you don’t want to accept the dominant performance of another guy over yourself,” Ariza said. “Be a man. Stand up and say, ‘You know what, he was something else that night. He neutralized me. He didn’t let me do what I want. I was completely frozen; he froze me from doing anything.’ ”

Mayweather said after the fight that he sometimes contradicts himself. It appears he has changed his mind about giving Pacquiao a rematch based on what he told Gray.

“Did I text Stephen A. Smith and say I will fight (Pacquiao) again? Yeah, but I change my mind,” he told Gray. “At this particular time, no, because he’s a sore loser and he’s a coward. If you lost, accept the loss and say, ‘Mayweather, you were the better fighter.’ ”

Ariza agrees with his current boss.

“There are 47 fighters out there who deserve a rematch more than Manny does,” Ariza said.

Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow him on Twitter: @stevecarprj.