Retired pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr. (49-0, 26 KOs) recently gave current WBO junior welterweight titlist Terence Crawford (27-0, 19 KOs) some tips if ever he will clash with eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) next year, saying that the Filipino pugilist is "a lot better than I thought".

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In a recent interview with Fight Hype's Ben Thompson, Mayweather was unusually complimentary of his pound-for-pound nemesis Pacquiao, warning Crawford that fighting Pac-Man "is not going to be easy".

"The (expletive) 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 Yuriorkis Gamboa, and he hits harder," said Mayweather.

It was pretty strange of Mayweather to praise Pacquiao in that way since he defeated him via a 12-round unanimous decision during their "Fight of the Century" last May as the undefeated American had always been the Filipino's staunchest critic.

However, Mayweather concluded that while Pac-Man is better than he expected, he is still "The Best Ever".

"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."

Meanwhile, ESPN's Dan Rafael indicated that Crawford is calmly waiting on Pacquiao's decision if he would fight him or not.

"We're just waiting to hear from Manny. He is on vacation now and probably not worried about picking a fighter right now," said Crawford.

According to Top Rank chief Bob Arum, there are three possible opponents for his fighter's alleged swan song in April next year, which are Timothy Bradley, Amir Khan, and Crawford.

Most boxing pundits say that Crawford is Pacquiao's most likely final opponent because the Omaha native is being groomed by Arum as the heir to Pac-Man's throne as the number fighter of Top Rank.

Recently, reports of a possible Pacquiao bout with new WBC middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez is also possible early next year as it would be the richest option for the Filipino congressman aside of course from a rematch with Mayweather.

TagsBoxing News & Rumors, Boxing News & Rumors 2015, Floyd Mayweather Jr, Terence Crawford, manny pacquiao