By CARLOS ARIAS

LAS VEGAS --- Floyd Mayweather appeared to give Marcos Maidana some heart-felt praise at one point during the post-fight news conference on Saturday night at the MGM Grand.

Mayweather asked for Maidana's trainer Robert Garcia to translate for him, so he could tell Maidana directly.

"You're a hell of a fighter," Mayweather said. "You're a very tough competitor. Congratulations on the new baby. She's beautiful. You have a beautiful family and you are a true champion. But in the next fight don't hit me in the d*ck so much. I do want to make some more kids."

Maidana responded with a zinger.

"But next time let me use my gloves," Maidana said.

It turned from heart-felt praise back to glove-gate. Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe threatened to cancel the fight on Friday night after getting into a heated exchange with Garcia and Golden Boy Promotions CEO over the gloves. Mayweather believed there was a lack of padding on Maidana's gloves. They were blue, in honor of Argentina, Everlast gloves with horsehair filling. The Nevada commission approved them. The Maidana camp eventually gave in to Mayweather's demands."

"Listen, I'm the A side like I said before," Mayweather said. "When I fought Oscar De La Hoya, I was the B side. When I was the B side, Oscar De La Hoya chose the the gloves. There was nothing I could say because he was teh A side. So the only thing I could do was respect that. A lot of people don't know what goes on behind the scenes. When he getting his hands wrapped, somebody from my camp has to watch him get his hands wrapped. When I'm getting my hands wrapped, somebody from his camp have to be on our side. There's a lot of things that go on with a championship fight. I just say one thing, 18 years (and) 17 as world champion."

Was Mayweather trying to get into Maidana's head by raising the glove issue?

"We got past the gloves," Mayweather said. "We're past the glove situation. The fight's already happened, so we can't dwell on the past."

Garcia said these were not the gloves that were agreed upon.

"These weren't the ones we wanted to use," Garcia said. "The commission accepted our Mexican Everlast gloves. They accepted them, but we were not allowed to use them. His gloves, when I was putting them on, I had to put a lot of Vaseline on them to make them slide in because they were just not comfortable."

Mayweather believed the gloves were unsafe.

"I have a life after boxing," Mayweather said. "He have a life after boxing. This is already a brutal sport. Of course, we're here to please the fans, but what about our health? When boxing is over, half of the boxers that's in the fight game now cannot articulate well. So do we really care about the fighters' health? Then they always asking questions like, 'How did this guy die? Why is he in the hospital? Why did he lose all his money?' He lost all his money because he can't count all his money by people not caring. I'm here to protect the fighters. Not just me. This man, he also have a family."

Mayweather was asked why not put in the contract that he had to wear Everlast Power Lock gloves, which they both used in the fight? Someone in the crowd yelled, "Ooh, Yeah!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, you ain't never fought before," Mayweather said. "I can guarantee you this, whoever said 'Yeah!' is from his camp. Come up. Whoever said 'yeah' come up. I bet you he from is camp. What camp you from? That's right. That's why it's 'Yeah!' I got a sharp mind. That guy never fought a day in his life and if he did fight, he never get to this level."

The glove issue could have been avoided if it was written into the contract.

"When it's all said and done, we already fought," Mayweather said. "We already fought. Now if he had won and he raised his hand and thought --- the key word is he thought he won --- when he raising his hand with those same gloves on, all of a sudden he didn't get his hand raised, because if he got his hand raised he wouldn't be talking about the gloves."

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