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Posted on Fri, Apr. 30, 2010
Heading into Mosley bout, Mayweather never at a loss for words
By BERNARD FERNANDEZ
Philadelphia Daily News
fernanb@phillynews.com
Whoever first said "If you can do what you say, it ain't bragging" must have been someone very much like Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Mayweather, 33, is really, really good, and he knows it. So does everyone else who has observed the five-division world champion vanquish 40 consecutive opponents and seldom be pressured in doing so. The Grand Rapids, Mich., native, who enjoys an ostentatious lifestyle in that most ostentatious of cities, Las Vegas, often breezes through entire fights without losing a round, when he isn't knocking his man out.
But it is the enormity of Mayweather's ego that has put off even fight fans who, while appreciating his just-as-large talents in the ring, frown upon someone who doesn't mind telling you that he's the best who's ever been. Better than Muhammad Ali. Better than Sugar Ray Robinson. Better than Joe Louis or Rocky Marciano or Sugar Ray Leonard or Harry Greb or Henry Armstrong or anybody you'd care to name.
"No one has a chance to beat me," preens Mayweather (40-0, 25 KOs), a 9-2 favorite who rates the odds of Shane Mosley (46-5, 39 KOs) pulling off an upset in tomorrow night's pay-per-view welterweight bout at Las Vegas' MGM Grand as somewhere between winning the Powerball lottery and utterly hopeless.
What about the late, great Robinson, acknowledged by many as the finest fighter, pound-for-pound, ever to draw a breath? Or Manny Pacquiao, a three-time Fighter of the Year honoree (Mayweather has won the award once) by the Boxing Writers Association of America, and who recently edged out Mayweather for the BWAA's designation as Fighter of the Decade for 2000-09?
"I'm not saying nobody else is good, but I know how to win," Mayweather said with his trademark smugness. "That's what I do. I win. I always win. I can adopt and adjust to any fighter, any style. I'm the best that ever lived, hands down.
"No one can get me to say Sugar Ray Robinson or anybody else was or is better than me. No one was better. No one is better. Maybe no one else ever will be better.
"But, hey, I know I'm never going to get the credit I deserve. People say, 'Floyd, get beat up. Get some black eyes. Stoop to everyone else's level.' Stupid. There's nothing cool about taking punishment, getting beat up, getting bloody lips. What is cool is the way I dominate you, shut you out, make crazy money and then go home to my family."
In the convoluted world of boxing, it is Mosley's media-friendly and, by comparison, humble demeanor that has stamped him as the sentimental choice to finally zip Mayweather's flapping lips, despite the fact that Mosley has admitted using performance-enhancing drugs prior to his Sept. 13, 2003, rematch with Oscar De La Hoya. Some have suggested Mosley was on the juice long before then. It is the equivalent of, say, Mark McGwire returning to baseball as a player and being cheered in visiting stadiums by fans willing to forgive and forget his tawdry past, provided he hits what are perceived as clean home runs and the pitcher is an even more obnoxious jerk.
It is Mayweather's demands that Pacquiao submit to more stringent, U.S. Anti-Doping Agency drug-testing that torpedoed their proposed fight in March, an ultimatum that a leverage-lacking Mosley was quick to agree to, that have caused him to be characterized by some as a my-way-or-the-highway bully instead of a crusader for cleansing a befouled sport. Whichever side of the fence fight fans are apt to come down on, "Money's" abrasive method of communicating can be as polarizing as the national debate over health care.
"I'm being criticized for my position on [stricter] drug-testing," Mayweather noted. "Look, I believe in drug-testing because I want to clean up boxing. What's so wrong with making sure a fight is fair?
"I hear people say, 'Oh, Shane is fast, he's as fast as Floyd.' Well, we know he was fast using enhancement drugs. How fast is he gonna be when he's got to fight all-natural?
"And Pacquiao . . . you know he's on something. I don't like to throw no nails, but all them guys are cheaters. We offered Pacquiao $25 million. I've never known a man that wouldn't take a drug test for $25 million, unless he was sure he wouldn't pass it.
"I seen Pacquiao go from ordinary to extraordinary just like that. He started at 106 pounds and now he's up to 147, and he's faster and hits harder! Anybody who knows boxing knows it just don't work like that."
Maybe Mayweather means everything he says, maybe he's just trying to agitate for his own purposes. His detractors seethe to take him down a notch or three, but angry men tend to make mistakes. Few ever have been better at capitalizing on mistakes than the loquacious Mayweather.
"You can write bad about Floyd, you can write good about Floyd, but one thing's for sure," he chided reporters during a teleconference, "you will write about me." *
Heading into Mosley bout, Mayweather never at a loss for words
By BERNARD FERNANDEZ
Philadelphia Daily News
fernanb@phillynews.com
Whoever first said "If you can do what you say, it ain't bragging" must have been someone very much like Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Mayweather, 33, is really, really good, and he knows it. So does everyone else who has observed the five-division world champion vanquish 40 consecutive opponents and seldom be pressured in doing so. The Grand Rapids, Mich., native, who enjoys an ostentatious lifestyle in that most ostentatious of cities, Las Vegas, often breezes through entire fights without losing a round, when he isn't knocking his man out.
But it is the enormity of Mayweather's ego that has put off even fight fans who, while appreciating his just-as-large talents in the ring, frown upon someone who doesn't mind telling you that he's the best who's ever been. Better than Muhammad Ali. Better than Sugar Ray Robinson. Better than Joe Louis or Rocky Marciano or Sugar Ray Leonard or Harry Greb or Henry Armstrong or anybody you'd care to name.
"No one has a chance to beat me," preens Mayweather (40-0, 25 KOs), a 9-2 favorite who rates the odds of Shane Mosley (46-5, 39 KOs) pulling off an upset in tomorrow night's pay-per-view welterweight bout at Las Vegas' MGM Grand as somewhere between winning the Powerball lottery and utterly hopeless.
What about the late, great Robinson, acknowledged by many as the finest fighter, pound-for-pound, ever to draw a breath? Or Manny Pacquiao, a three-time Fighter of the Year honoree (Mayweather has won the award once) by the Boxing Writers Association of America, and who recently edged out Mayweather for the BWAA's designation as Fighter of the Decade for 2000-09?
"I'm not saying nobody else is good, but I know how to win," Mayweather said with his trademark smugness. "That's what I do. I win. I always win. I can adopt and adjust to any fighter, any style. I'm the best that ever lived, hands down.
"No one can get me to say Sugar Ray Robinson or anybody else was or is better than me. No one was better. No one is better. Maybe no one else ever will be better.
"But, hey, I know I'm never going to get the credit I deserve. People say, 'Floyd, get beat up. Get some black eyes. Stoop to everyone else's level.' Stupid. There's nothing cool about taking punishment, getting beat up, getting bloody lips. What is cool is the way I dominate you, shut you out, make crazy money and then go home to my family."
In the convoluted world of boxing, it is Mosley's media-friendly and, by comparison, humble demeanor that has stamped him as the sentimental choice to finally zip Mayweather's flapping lips, despite the fact that Mosley has admitted using performance-enhancing drugs prior to his Sept. 13, 2003, rematch with Oscar De La Hoya. Some have suggested Mosley was on the juice long before then. It is the equivalent of, say, Mark McGwire returning to baseball as a player and being cheered in visiting stadiums by fans willing to forgive and forget his tawdry past, provided he hits what are perceived as clean home runs and the pitcher is an even more obnoxious jerk.
It is Mayweather's demands that Pacquiao submit to more stringent, U.S. Anti-Doping Agency drug-testing that torpedoed their proposed fight in March, an ultimatum that a leverage-lacking Mosley was quick to agree to, that have caused him to be characterized by some as a my-way-or-the-highway bully instead of a crusader for cleansing a befouled sport. Whichever side of the fence fight fans are apt to come down on, "Money's" abrasive method of communicating can be as polarizing as the national debate over health care.
"I'm being criticized for my position on [stricter] drug-testing," Mayweather noted. "Look, I believe in drug-testing because I want to clean up boxing. What's so wrong with making sure a fight is fair?
"I hear people say, 'Oh, Shane is fast, he's as fast as Floyd.' Well, we know he was fast using enhancement drugs. How fast is he gonna be when he's got to fight all-natural?
"And Pacquiao . . . you know he's on something. I don't like to throw no nails, but all them guys are cheaters. We offered Pacquiao $25 million. I've never known a man that wouldn't take a drug test for $25 million, unless he was sure he wouldn't pass it.
"I seen Pacquiao go from ordinary to extraordinary just like that. He started at 106 pounds and now he's up to 147, and he's faster and hits harder! Anybody who knows boxing knows it just don't work like that."
Maybe Mayweather means everything he says, maybe he's just trying to agitate for his own purposes. His detractors seethe to take him down a notch or three, but angry men tend to make mistakes. Few ever have been better at capitalizing on mistakes than the loquacious Mayweather.
"You can write bad about Floyd, you can write good about Floyd, but one thing's for sure," he chided reporters during a teleconference, "you will write about me." *
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