NEW YORK — Floyd Mayweather has told ESPN that he's no longer interested in a rematch with Manny Pacquiao "because he's a sore loser and he's a coward."
The interview was recorded late Tuesday night (Wednesday, Manila time) and will air on Showtime on Saturday night after the network's replay of boxing's richest fight, which Mayweather won by decision last weekend to stay undefeated.
The 38-year-old American had told the same network earlier that he's willing to fight Pacquiao again, but said he changed his mind amid the furor over the shoulder injury Pacquiao had prior to the fight.
Asked if he thought Pacquiao was hampered by the right shoulder injury that later required surgery, Mayweather tells Jim Gray, "Absolutely not."
"Excuses, excuses, excuses," he said later.
"He was fast," Mayweather insists in quotes released by ESPN on Thursday.
"His left hand was fast. His right hand was fast and he was throwing them both fast and strong."
Using an expletive for emphasis, Mayweather adds that "I'm not going to buy into" it, "and I don't want the public to buy into" it.
"He lost," Mayweather said. "He knows he lost. I lost a lot of respect for him after all of this."
Mayweather acknowledged that he earlier texted ESPN's Stephen A. Smith to say he welcomed a rematch.
"Yeah, but I change my mind," Mayweather said. "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.'"
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