Floyd Mayweather Jr. says he wants to hear Manny Pacquiao say he wants to fight him.

Bob Arum, Pacquiao’s promoter, and Freddie Roach, his trainer, have discussed the possibility of a showdown between the top two fighters in the world. And Pacquiao said he believes Mayweather doesn’t want to fight him.

However, Mayweather says Pacquiao has never said: “I want to fight Mayweather.” And he believes there might a specific reason for that.

“Manny Pacquiao is the fighter and every time someone asks him if he wants to fight me, he says it is up to his promoter, he's going to take a vacation, whatever the answer is,” Mayweather said in a prepared statement two days after Pacquiao knocked out Miguel Cotto in Las Vegas. I have yet to hear him actually say, 'Yes I want to fight Mayweather.' We are the fighters and if one fighter is talking about fighting another fighter, then they should just come out and say it. Manny Pacquiao doesn't say anything directly about fighting me because he might just know it's not a fight he can win.

“He said during an interview he did leading up to his fight that he didn't think I wanted to fight him and that boxing for me was just a business and I wasn't interested in a good fight. But again, he never said during that interview that he would fight me. Why is he talking about what I won't do instead of what he wants to do? Plain and simple, it's because he knows he can't beat me under any circumstances.”

Mayweather, never hesitant to blow his own horn, said the Pacquiao-Cotto fight amounted to a “Mayweather sweepstakes.”

“Less than an hour after his fight Saturday night the talk turns back to me,” he said. “Their whole promotion was just a Mayweather sweepstakes. They know it and anyone could figure that out. Why? Because my name kept coming up and I didn't even say anything. Even when he was interviewed on ESPN by Brian Kenny, he was asked about fighting me and what did he say? Not, 'Yes I want to fight Mayweather” or “bring it on.' But no! He said, 'Hum, ahh, well, talk to my promoter.'”

Mayweather implied that Pacquiao isn’t what he is perceived to be.

“The world is much more intrigued by the thought of someone fighting me who can beat me,” he said. “That is what everyone wants to see and the boxing world is trying to find that guy. Manny Pacquaio's people have done a good job of creating an image of him to be this unbelievable fighter and now the so-called guy to beat me. But like all the rest, he's not the one. There is boxing and then there is me. The rest are just falling in line behind me or are trying to get in line to fight me. And that includes Manny Pacquiao, too.”

“Tell Manny Pacquiao to be his own man and stop letting everyone, including his loudmouth trainer, talk for him. I am my own boss, speak for myself and tell it like it is. If Manny Pacquiao wants to fight me, all he has to do is step up to the plate and say it himself.”