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Floyd Mayweather " I would love to fight Khan in Wembley, he is a good young fighter"
Floyd Mayweather Jr trains with his uncle, Roger Mayweather
Floyd Mayweather Jr, left, training with his uncle, Roger Mayweather, in Las Vegas. Photograph: Andrew Couldridge/Action Images
Floyd Mayweather Jr talks like he boxes, slipping questions with the practised ease of someone for whom evasion is as easy as breathing. He is the Natural.
However, dropping his guard, he says he would fight Amir Khan – in London next year – if the WBA light-welterweight champion beats the IBF title-holder, Zab Judah, at the Mandalay Bay on Saturday night.
"I would love to come and fight at Wembley," he says. But he sidesteps all questions about Khan's friend and training partner, Manny Pacquiao. Mayweather does not reach out to boxing; boxing comes to Mayweather – or, at least, that is his perspective.
Jab away at him, however, and a few light bruises appear on an ego more fragile than he would like to admit. In the course of 25 minutes – while one of the hired helps wraps his hands in preparation for pad-work with his uncle, Roger – the finest pure boxer since Sugar Ray Leonard raises his voice just once, and even then briefly.
"How can I not be rated No1 if I haven't been beaten?" he asks, incredulous at the suggestion that he needs to seal his standing in boxing history by fighting Pacquiao, regarded by good judges as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world and a champion in eight weight divisions – instead of Victor Ortiz, whom Mayweather meets in Las Vegas when he returns to the ring, on 17 September, after an absence of 16 months.
"I am not worried about the Pacquiao thing at all. I can do whatever I want in this sport. Floyd Mayweather is in the sport to give great performances. And I must be happy myself before I can make anyone else happy.
"The British fans would love to see me fight Amir Khan and I'm pretty sure the Filipino fans would want to see me fight Pacquiao. The American fans would love to see me fight anybody."
This is a narrow reading of the wishes of boxing fans, wherever they are from. The one fight boxing wants and needs is Mayweather-Pacquiao. There is no other contest that appeals more or is as capable of reaching out to an audience beyond the hardcore – and, while Mayweather pretends he is not bothered (because he is the centre of his own universe), he wants the fight too.
Roger, who is also Floyd's trainer, wants the fight, although he has done his best to scupper it by suggesting Pacquiao has used performance-enhancing drugs – something the Filipino denies – an accusation he this week threw at Khan, who shares Pacquiao's conditioner, Alex Ariza, and trainer, Freddie Roach.
Pacquiao this week denied he was going through his considerable fortune, confirming that he is worth $26m (£16m), even though he has earned much more than that in his career. A fight with Mayweather would probably bring each of them upward of $50m, although Pacquiao is reluctant to submit to Olympic-standard drugs tests to convince Mayweather he is clean.
(LOL AT PAC BEING SO SHORT-CHANGED)
"If the tables were turned and I didn't want to take the test," Mayweather said, "people would be saying Floyd Mayweather is doing something. No wonder he won all these fights. All I'm saying is a fighter doesn't all of a sudden become a good fighter at the age of 25. Do you guys think that Floyd Mayweather could just move to heavyweight and all of a sudden compete with the Klitschko brothers? Absolutely not."
Mayweather was not tempted to pick the winner of Khan's fight against Judah. "It will all come down to who wants it more, who is the smarter fighter and who has the better chin. I fought Zab Judah at 147 pounds. Both are explosive fighters. It's a good fight to watch.
"Amir Khan came here and trained in the boxing gym with my uncle Roger a few times. He's a good young fighter. We're in the fight game so every fighter wants to fight Floyd Mayweather. But he must get past the obstacles put in front of him first. Then we'll go from there."
He would not be drawn on his uncle's evidence-free claims about Khan. "It's not my place to comment on what Roger said about Amir Khan and steroids. All I will say is that if you are facing Floyd Mayweather, you got to take the test." Neither will he budge from the view that he is the biggest draw in boxing, and it is true he has posted several impressive pay-per-view numbers.
"Everywhere I go, I will make a good payday. But we got to choose the right opponent and the right time and the right venue. You guys got some great venues. I could fill a soccer stadium over there.
"I like fighters who come to fight. Amir Khan is a young champion. I take my hat off to him. It's a difficult challenge [against Judah]. It will not be easy for either man.
"Every fight I look at as all the same, just another fight. I'm not worried about nothing. You say Victor Ortiz, you say Amir Khan, no matter what name you say, it's just another fighter to Floyd Mayweather."
Mayweather's look-at-me, third-person posturing is not unusual in boxing. It is what sustains nearly all its participants, and arrogance is part of what makes Mayweather a great fighter. He says he fears nobody, that no opponent has ever stretched him to his full potential, and he is right.
He tries to be polite, but it is plain he does not consider Khan capable of it, either. "Have I used my A-game yet? Absolutely not. I have not had to really bite down and say: 'Damn, this is a tough fight.' When I go into a fight it is just another guy. If somebody hits me with a good shot, I go back to the corner and they say: 'It was a good shot but don't worry about it.'"
Mayweather shifts uneasily when asked about the domestic violence charges he has yet to face in court. "We just try to be positive and hope for the best. Once you show me some real photos of someone being battered or beaten, then we just say OK. But I am already in a contact sport, which is boxing, so someone says they got touched in an unlikely manner and people automatically say Floyd Mayweather is guilty. Guys have got to say OK, we seen Mayweather when he fought Zab Judah and when a melee broke out, what did he do? I went back to my corner and conducted myself like a true gentleman."
Mayweather, who is 34 and who has retired twice, says he will box for at least another three years. "I need more titles and more money," he says.
He has had enough questions. With friends and neighbourhood gawpers gathered to pay homage, Mayweather climbs into the ring and goes through his dazzling repertoire of combinations, a ritual so familiar to him and his uncle that each punch finds the moving target as if connected by string.
As we leave, his white Rolls Royce parked outside the gym in a part of Las Vegas some way from the glitter of the Strip is a loud statement by the fighter who is comfortable with the most appropriate nickname in boxing: "Money."
Floyd Mayweather Jr, left, training with his uncle, Roger Mayweather, in Las Vegas. Photograph: Andrew Couldridge/Action Images
Floyd Mayweather Jr talks like he boxes, slipping questions with the practised ease of someone for whom evasion is as easy as breathing. He is the Natural.
However, dropping his guard, he says he would fight Amir Khan – in London next year – if the WBA light-welterweight champion beats the IBF title-holder, Zab Judah, at the Mandalay Bay on Saturday night.
"I would love to come and fight at Wembley," he says. But he sidesteps all questions about Khan's friend and training partner, Manny Pacquiao. Mayweather does not reach out to boxing; boxing comes to Mayweather – or, at least, that is his perspective.
Jab away at him, however, and a few light bruises appear on an ego more fragile than he would like to admit. In the course of 25 minutes – while one of the hired helps wraps his hands in preparation for pad-work with his uncle, Roger – the finest pure boxer since Sugar Ray Leonard raises his voice just once, and even then briefly.
"How can I not be rated No1 if I haven't been beaten?" he asks, incredulous at the suggestion that he needs to seal his standing in boxing history by fighting Pacquiao, regarded by good judges as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world and a champion in eight weight divisions – instead of Victor Ortiz, whom Mayweather meets in Las Vegas when he returns to the ring, on 17 September, after an absence of 16 months.
"I am not worried about the Pacquiao thing at all. I can do whatever I want in this sport. Floyd Mayweather is in the sport to give great performances. And I must be happy myself before I can make anyone else happy.
"The British fans would love to see me fight Amir Khan and I'm pretty sure the Filipino fans would want to see me fight Pacquiao. The American fans would love to see me fight anybody."
This is a narrow reading of the wishes of boxing fans, wherever they are from. The one fight boxing wants and needs is Mayweather-Pacquiao. There is no other contest that appeals more or is as capable of reaching out to an audience beyond the hardcore – and, while Mayweather pretends he is not bothered (because he is the centre of his own universe), he wants the fight too.
Roger, who is also Floyd's trainer, wants the fight, although he has done his best to scupper it by suggesting Pacquiao has used performance-enhancing drugs – something the Filipino denies – an accusation he this week threw at Khan, who shares Pacquiao's conditioner, Alex Ariza, and trainer, Freddie Roach.
Pacquiao this week denied he was going through his considerable fortune, confirming that he is worth $26m (£16m), even though he has earned much more than that in his career. A fight with Mayweather would probably bring each of them upward of $50m, although Pacquiao is reluctant to submit to Olympic-standard drugs tests to convince Mayweather he is clean.
(LOL AT PAC BEING SO SHORT-CHANGED)
"If the tables were turned and I didn't want to take the test," Mayweather said, "people would be saying Floyd Mayweather is doing something. No wonder he won all these fights. All I'm saying is a fighter doesn't all of a sudden become a good fighter at the age of 25. Do you guys think that Floyd Mayweather could just move to heavyweight and all of a sudden compete with the Klitschko brothers? Absolutely not."
Mayweather was not tempted to pick the winner of Khan's fight against Judah. "It will all come down to who wants it more, who is the smarter fighter and who has the better chin. I fought Zab Judah at 147 pounds. Both are explosive fighters. It's a good fight to watch.
"Amir Khan came here and trained in the boxing gym with my uncle Roger a few times. He's a good young fighter. We're in the fight game so every fighter wants to fight Floyd Mayweather. But he must get past the obstacles put in front of him first. Then we'll go from there."
He would not be drawn on his uncle's evidence-free claims about Khan. "It's not my place to comment on what Roger said about Amir Khan and steroids. All I will say is that if you are facing Floyd Mayweather, you got to take the test." Neither will he budge from the view that he is the biggest draw in boxing, and it is true he has posted several impressive pay-per-view numbers.
"Everywhere I go, I will make a good payday. But we got to choose the right opponent and the right time and the right venue. You guys got some great venues. I could fill a soccer stadium over there.
"I like fighters who come to fight. Amir Khan is a young champion. I take my hat off to him. It's a difficult challenge [against Judah]. It will not be easy for either man.
"Every fight I look at as all the same, just another fight. I'm not worried about nothing. You say Victor Ortiz, you say Amir Khan, no matter what name you say, it's just another fighter to Floyd Mayweather."
Mayweather's look-at-me, third-person posturing is not unusual in boxing. It is what sustains nearly all its participants, and arrogance is part of what makes Mayweather a great fighter. He says he fears nobody, that no opponent has ever stretched him to his full potential, and he is right.
He tries to be polite, but it is plain he does not consider Khan capable of it, either. "Have I used my A-game yet? Absolutely not. I have not had to really bite down and say: 'Damn, this is a tough fight.' When I go into a fight it is just another guy. If somebody hits me with a good shot, I go back to the corner and they say: 'It was a good shot but don't worry about it.'"
Mayweather shifts uneasily when asked about the domestic violence charges he has yet to face in court. "We just try to be positive and hope for the best. Once you show me some real photos of someone being battered or beaten, then we just say OK. But I am already in a contact sport, which is boxing, so someone says they got touched in an unlikely manner and people automatically say Floyd Mayweather is guilty. Guys have got to say OK, we seen Mayweather when he fought Zab Judah and when a melee broke out, what did he do? I went back to my corner and conducted myself like a true gentleman."
Mayweather, who is 34 and who has retired twice, says he will box for at least another three years. "I need more titles and more money," he says.
He has had enough questions. With friends and neighbourhood gawpers gathered to pay homage, Mayweather climbs into the ring and goes through his dazzling repertoire of combinations, a ritual so familiar to him and his uncle that each punch finds the moving target as if connected by string.
As we leave, his white Rolls Royce parked outside the gym in a part of Las Vegas some way from the glitter of the Strip is a loud statement by the fighter who is comfortable with the most appropriate nickname in boxing: "Money."
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