Boxing

Manny Pacquiao Jabs At Floyd Mayweather With 'Easy Fights' Comment

Boxing icon Manny Pacquiao appeared to subtly diss Floyd Mayweather with a recent comment.
Grant Young|
Hall of Fame boxing legend Manny Pacquiao on June 3, 2025.
Hall of Fame boxing legend Manny Pacquiao on June 3, 2025. | IMAGO / ZUMA Press Wire

Legendary Filipino boxer Manny “PacMan” Pacquiao was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) on Sunday, June 8, 2025, during a ceremony that took place at Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York.

Given that he's the only eight-division world champion in boxing history, is the only boxer to hold world championships across four decades, and has won twelve major world titles across his professional career, there's no doubt that Pacquiao is more than deserving of being immortalized in the IBHOF. However, the fact that he fights next month against Mario Barrios (where he'll be going for a 13th world title) makes this timing somewhat strange.

Regardless, it was only a matter of time for when Pacquiao will receive his induction. And him getting his flowers while the spotlight has already been on him in recent weeks makes a lot of sense.

As part of his induction ceremony, Pacquiao took to the podium and spoke for about 10 minutes, where he touched upon a variety of topics and thanked many people. However, one comment he made is turning a lot of heads, especially because of what (and who) fans think Pacquiao was alluding to.

"I just worked hard to be better than [the] Manny Pacquiao I was yesterday. I never picked the easy fights. I choose the hard ones. I move up weight after weight, not to protect a record, but to test my limits," Pacquiao said.

Fans are perceiving this comment as a jab at Floyd Mayweather, who finished his career with a perfect 50-0 record. While Mayweather and Pacquiao fought (which Mayweather won), many have criticized Mayweather for delaying the fight until Pacquiao was past his prime so that he'd have a better chance of winning.

What's more, Mayweather's pro career spanned five weight classes, as opposed to eight for Pacquiao. These reasons convey that Pacquiao was more than likely subtly dissing "Money" Mayweather during his retirement ceremony.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young is a Staff Writer for On SI’s Boxing, New York Mets, Indiana Fever, and Women’s Fastbreak sites. Before joining SI in 2024, he wrote for various boxing and sports verticals such as FanBuzz and NY Fights. Young has a bachelor’s degree in marketing and a master’s degree in creative writing with an emphasis on sports nonfiction from the University of San Francisco, where he played five seasons of Division 1 baseball. He fought Muay Thai professionally in Thailand in 2023, loves a good essay, and is driven crazy trying to handle a pitpull puppy named Aura. Young lives in San Diego and was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area.