Floyd Mayweather: If Manny Pacquiao Is No. 1 Pound-for-Pound, Fine

Floyd Mayweather got feisty this week when Brian Kenny suggested to him that Manny Pacquiao had taken the title of No. 1 pound-for-pound boxer in the world away from him. But In an interview on British television, Mayweather said he's fine with it.

"If Manny Pacquiao is now No. 1 pound-for-pound in the media, and the people's eyes, more power to him," Mayweather said in an interview to promote his July 18 fight with Juan Manuel Marquez.

That's quite a departure from his angry insistence earlier that he's the best in the sport. But Mayweather was quick to add that he's been the best for a long time.

"You're talking about a guy who's No. 1 pound-for-pound for a decade," Mayweather said. "So I'm not sweating it."

My own opinion is that Mayweather's absence from boxing over the last year and a half, combined with Pacquiao's destruction of Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton, earned Pacquiao the title of No. 1 pound-for-pound boxer in the world. But there's only one way to settle it: In the ring.