Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s dad: My son would ‘whoop’ Manny Pacquiao

LAS VEGAS — Floyd Mayweather, preparing for his May 3 fight against Marcos Maidana, was humorously diplomatic this week when asked about promoter Bob Arum’s latest gambit to force a superfight between Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.

Arum suggested this month that boxing fans should boycott the Mayweather-Maidana fight, suggesting they not buy tickets to see it live at the MGM Grand or watch it on Showtime pay-per-view.

“Only thing we can do is pray for Bob Arum,” Mayweather said this week during media day for his 12-round world championship unification bout with Maidana. “I don’t want to say nothing negative about Bob Arum. I wish Bob Arum nothing but the best. We’re doing what we’re doing over here.”

Boxing fans have called for a Mayweather-Pacquiao showdown since 2009, but repeated efforts to arrange that fight have failed for many reasons, among them disagreements about drug testing and how to share profits.

The luster of that matchup has dulled after Pacquiao lost two of his past three fights, the defeats coming in 2012 to Timothy Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez.

Mayweather, who is 45-0, beat Marquez in 2009.

Floyd Mayweather Sr., far more bombastic than his son, said Pacquiao doesn’t belong in the same ring as Floyd Jr.

“Manny and Floyd? That would be the easiest fight Floyd could make,” the elder Mayweather said. “This [Maidana] fight right here would be harder than Manny, believe me. Floyd would have whooped [Pacquiao] anyway, but he’d kill him now because Pacquiao just got clipped by Marquez.

“Marquez knocked the … out of Pacquiao. So you think Manny could come back and whip Floyd after that? Come on. Little Floyd beat the hell out of Marquez. Don’t you worry about Manny. Pacquiao ain’t nobody, ain’t never been nobody when it comes to fighting Floyd. Bob Arum can talk all he wants.”