Mayweather warns Crawford: 'Pacquiao’s better than I thought'

MANILA, Philippines – Floyd Mayweather Jr. recently reiterated that Manny Pacquiao is a better fighter than he thought prior to taking on the Filipino icon in boxing’s richest fight ever last May.

Mayweather made the comment as he issued a warning to rising star Terence Crawford, who is reportedly the frontrunner to become Pacquiao’s next opponent.

"If Terence Crawford happens to fight Manny Pacquiao, I want to let him know that it's not going to be easy. Even though I know I made it look easy, it's not going to be easy," the retired Mayweather told Ben Thompson of fighthype.com.

Crawford, the undefeated WBO junior welterweight champion, is awaiting Pacquiao’s decision regarding his opponent for a planned fight in April next year. It could either be him or Timothy Bradley, whose recent stoppage of Brandon Rios positioned himself for a rubber match with Pacquiao.

The fighting congressman is reportedly reviewing tapes of Crawford and Bradley’s past fights and will come up with a decision anytime soon.

Mayweather, for his part, advised Crawford not to take Pacquiao likely if ever they end up fighting each other.

Crawford, according to Mayweather, shouldn’t consider his win over Pacquiao as an indication that the Filipino is easy to defeat. Mayweather outpointed Pacquiao in their Las Vegas showdown to become the unified welterweight champion.

"[Pacquiao] can fight. He's a lot better than what I thought he was. From me being in the ring with Manny Pacquiao, I take my hat off to him and I can see why he went so far in his career. Terence Crawford gotta realize that Pacquiao is bigger and stronger than [former Crawford opoonent] Yuriorkis Gamboa, and he hits harder," the former pound-for-pound king continued.

“He [Crawford] can fight, but I don't want him to think that just because I made it look that easy with Pacquiao, it's going to be that easy." – Dino Maragay