By Victor Salazar

New York, New York - On Wednesday, retired boxing superstar and now full-time promoter, Floyd Mayweather Jr., was on hand to promote his first event in New York City. The card headlined by Mayweather Promotions' WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack in a unification with Great Britain's IBF champion James Degale.

Although he isn't fighting, Mayweather was still pressed about returning to the ring by a mob of reporters. After repeatedly telling reporters that his main focus was to promote his stable of fighters and show them how to be wise on both sides of the ring, Floyd briefly touched on a moment in his career that included former world champion Antonio Margarito.

Back in 2006, Mayweather had parted ways with longtime promoter Top Rank. When Mayweather left, Top Rank made a very aggressive push to have him face Margarito. Mayweather rejected an offer of $8 million - which at the time would have been his biggest purse.

Instead of entertaining the Mexican brawler, Mayweather fought Carlos Baldomir, which made many experts wonder if he was avoiding Margarito. One of the critics who was ripping him for not facing Margarito was his former promoter, Bob Arum of Top Rank. 

In January of 2009, Margarito found himself in a world of trouble when there were illegal inserts discovered in his hand wraps just moments prior to his scheduled fight with Shane Mosley in Los Angeles. The fight still went forward and Mosley knocked him out. 

"Floyd ducked Antonio Margarito," Mayweather said. "Then come to find out he was cheating. The guy they said I was ducking and dodging was cheating. The only thing I said I wanted to do, I want to be on an even playing field."

It was referenced again when Mayweather mentioned the wealthiest fight in boxing history between him and Manny Pacquiao.

"With Manny Pacquiao, I think he's a Hall of Famer and great fighter but I just wanted to be on an even playing field," explained Mayweather.

"All I ever wanted was random blood and urine tests. Remember, I was the first to come out with random testing. Now you see it's not just in boxing [where] guys [are] cheating. When I was saying it, I was a coward and once again, the guy they said I was scared of, Manny Pacquiao, I went out there and blew him out."

Another reason Mayweather says he's happy to have walked away from the sport when he did, was because his body was breaking down for the past couple of years.

"When I was fighting I beat these guys without using my A game or B game. Before my body started breaking down, I was a knockout artist. The last time I was a knockout artist it was against Arturo Gatti. But boxing takes its toll on you. I was happy I was a smart defensive, sharp fighter and mentally dominant and made smart moves," Mayweather said.