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Floyd mayweather: “i’m a thinking fighter”
September 02, 2009
FLOYD MAYWEATHER: “I’M A THINKING FIGHTER”
Multi-division world champion Floyd Mayweather, Jr. was joined by his uncle/trainer, Roger Mayweather, on an international media conference call to discuss his September 19th welterweight showdown against another multi-weight class world champion, Juan Manuel Marquez. As Mayweather has generated a quarter of a billion dollars from Pay-Per-View, reporters wondered why he didn’t become a star until he fought Ricky Hatton and Oscar De La Hoya. Mayweather blamed Top Rank without mentiong the company by name. “I was with another promotion company that never took me to that next level. It’s not my fault I wasn’t taken to the next level in the past. I feel that I was always a pay-per-view star. I feel that Marquez has a good following with his Mexican background and his Mexican people. He’s Mexico’s number one fighter. Even in the U.S., I feel like he’s going to have a lot of support. I look forward to doing good numbers. To bring excitement back to the sport. I truly believe that I can do that. I don’t worry about what any fighter does. All 39 opponents had a game plan to throw a lot of punches and keep pressure [on me]. The last guy I fought was [going] to keep a lot of pressure and it didn’t work. That doesn’t work with me. It’s obvious these fighters are going to have to come up with a new game plan. Me and my uncle Roger are going to go out there and do the best we can do. It doesn’t matter how we win as long as we win.”
In a display of appreciation, Mayweather commended a reporter for asking the “right” question when discussing the differences between current pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao’s fights and Mayweather’s own fights. “Basically, it’s like this. De La Hoya is more comfortable at 154. Once again, when he fought Pacquiao, he was basically on a diet. He was training to lose fat instead of training to fight. When I fought De La Hoya, they said, ‘He’s over the hill.’ If I’m 30 and he’s 33 [Editor's note: De La Hoya was actually 34 at the time], how is that? It makes no difference if I was 20 and he was 23. Then we go to Ricky Hatton. When he went out there and fought, that wasn’t my dad’s game plan. Anyone can get caught in the sport of boxing. Once you’ve been knocked out, you have doubt. And in the Ricky Hatton fight, he had doubt. He went out there with his hands straight up in the air. He keeps going up and down in weight, and he’s not taking care of his body like he should. Sometimes I sit back and ask myself, ‘Where was Pacquiao when I was dominating in the 90’s?’ You say to yourself, ‘Okay.’ They say we want to see Mayweather/Pacquiao but not Mayweather/Marquez. Actually Marquez is a little bit bigger than Pacquiao. A lot of people speak on boxing but don’t really know boxing. I told you before that those HBO commentators are always commentating but they’ve never been in the heat of battle.”
FLOYD MAYWEATHER: “I’M A THINKING FIGHTER”
Multi-division world champion Floyd Mayweather, Jr. was joined by his uncle/trainer, Roger Mayweather, on an international media conference call to discuss his September 19th welterweight showdown against another multi-weight class world champion, Juan Manuel Marquez. As Mayweather has generated a quarter of a billion dollars from Pay-Per-View, reporters wondered why he didn’t become a star until he fought Ricky Hatton and Oscar De La Hoya. Mayweather blamed Top Rank without mentiong the company by name. “I was with another promotion company that never took me to that next level. It’s not my fault I wasn’t taken to the next level in the past. I feel that I was always a pay-per-view star. I feel that Marquez has a good following with his Mexican background and his Mexican people. He’s Mexico’s number one fighter. Even in the U.S., I feel like he’s going to have a lot of support. I look forward to doing good numbers. To bring excitement back to the sport. I truly believe that I can do that. I don’t worry about what any fighter does. All 39 opponents had a game plan to throw a lot of punches and keep pressure [on me]. The last guy I fought was [going] to keep a lot of pressure and it didn’t work. That doesn’t work with me. It’s obvious these fighters are going to have to come up with a new game plan. Me and my uncle Roger are going to go out there and do the best we can do. It doesn’t matter how we win as long as we win.”
In a display of appreciation, Mayweather commended a reporter for asking the “right” question when discussing the differences between current pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao’s fights and Mayweather’s own fights. “Basically, it’s like this. De La Hoya is more comfortable at 154. Once again, when he fought Pacquiao, he was basically on a diet. He was training to lose fat instead of training to fight. When I fought De La Hoya, they said, ‘He’s over the hill.’ If I’m 30 and he’s 33 [Editor's note: De La Hoya was actually 34 at the time], how is that? It makes no difference if I was 20 and he was 23. Then we go to Ricky Hatton. When he went out there and fought, that wasn’t my dad’s game plan. Anyone can get caught in the sport of boxing. Once you’ve been knocked out, you have doubt. And in the Ricky Hatton fight, he had doubt. He went out there with his hands straight up in the air. He keeps going up and down in weight, and he’s not taking care of his body like he should. Sometimes I sit back and ask myself, ‘Where was Pacquiao when I was dominating in the 90’s?’ You say to yourself, ‘Okay.’ They say we want to see Mayweather/Pacquiao but not Mayweather/Marquez. Actually Marquez is a little bit bigger than Pacquiao. A lot of people speak on boxing but don’t really know boxing. I told you before that those HBO commentators are always commentating but they’ve never been in the heat of battle.”
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