Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao 2015: 50 Cent Predicts 'Money' Will Win May 2 Match

Rapper Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson predicted Tuesday that Floyd Mayweather will defeat Manny Pacquiao in their long-awaited match this May. The 39-year-old hip-hop icon explained his choice during an appearance on New York radio station Power 105.1’s “The Breakfast Club” morning show and said he plans to bet approximately $1.6 million on the fight.

“I got champ, champ gonna smoke him. It’s gonna look like [the fight] was pumped up for no reason,” 50 Cent said, according to TMZ Sports. He added that he spoke with Mayweather at Chris Brown’s concert at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, in February and that Mayweather is “focused” on defeating Pacquiao.

The encounter at Brown’s concert last month was the first time the two men had spoken in “a while,” 50 Cent added on “The Breakfast Club.” 50 Cent and Mayweather were once close friends, and the rapper frequently associated with Mayweather’s “Money Team” faction. But the two began trading barbs in the press and on social media last year for reasons that neither side has made clear.

Their feud culminated last summer, when 50 Cent used “ALS Ice Bucket Challenge,” a viral social media trend, to issue a challenge to Mayweather. He offered to donate $750,000 to the charity of Mayweather’s choice if the boxer was able to read one page of a “Harry Potter” book. The challenge led Mayweather’s father, Floyd Mayweather Sr., to suggest the two men should hold a boxing match to settle their differences.

After years of on-and-off negotiation, Mayweather and Pacquiao agreed last month to fight in a May 2 match at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mayweather will receive a 60-40 split of what is expected to be the richest purse in boxing history. The fight will be held at the maximum welterweight weight limit of 147 pounds and will be jointly distributed by HBO and Showtime, according to ESPN. Oddsmakers have established Mayweather as the early favorite to win the match.