Finally Floyd Mayweather is coming out swinging.

In the wake of what was both a brilliant display of tactical nous and a shameless display of ‘win at all costs’, Mayweather spent most of Sunday’s fight playing percentage boxing against Manny Pacquiao and was rewarded with a unanimous points victory. The biggest punches, however, are being thrown after the bell has dinged for the final time.

Pacquiao has spoken at length about the injury to his right shoulder that hampered both his preparation and performance in the ring, which has clearly irked Mayweather. TIME reports:

[He] said in an upcoming interview with Showtime that at this moment he’s not interested in a rematch with Manny Pacquiao “because he’s a sore loser and he’s a coward…”

“Excuses, excuses, excuses…He was fast, 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.”

Boom, now there’s the combination the fight was lacking. Mayweather also admitted that he had texted an ESPN reporter to say that he would be happy to give Manny a rematch, but was in a less magnanimous mood during the Showtime interview:

“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.’”

I must say all of this post-match bickering has taken much of the shine off what was an already lacklustre boxing match. We may never see a match like Ali-Foreman again, but at least now we know these two aren’t the boxers that will prove us wrong.

[source:time]