LAS VEGAS – If Floyd Mayweather is having second thoughts about retiring after his welterweight title fight against Andre Berto on Saturday night and looking to beat Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 record, he’s not showing his hand.
A relaxed Mayweather told a group of reporters after his grand arrival at the MGM Grand Tuesday afternoon that he will not miss the sport that has brought him riches and fame beyond anything he could have imagined.
“I’m not going to miss it at all. I want to be on the other side,” the pound-for-pound king (48-0, 26 KOs) reiterated. “My ultimate goal is, hopefully we can find the next Floyd Mayweather. I want to be able to hang out and go to different hotels, and enjoy the events, and wear the T-shirts and the hats. I want to be able to do things like that. I can remember when I turned professional as a teenager, this was Mike Tyson’s building. I’m just blessed. I feel like I was dealt a royal flush. . . I stayed with my team and was honest and loyal and was able to get the job done.
“I’m not breaking that 50-0 (record). Don’t worry about that.”
The sport of boxing, he said, is much richer because of his contributions.
“Every fighter now is like, ‘I want the Mayweather payday’,” he said. “I’ve done a lot for the sport. At one time, everyone was focused on heavyweights. My ultimate goal was for everyone to focus on whatever weight I was at. I think everyone now is focused on 140, 147, 154 pounds. I was always able to make noise at whatever weight class I went to.”
On being criticized for picking Berto, a huge underdog, as his presumptive final foe, Mayweather said, “I was sitting back and thinking, I know different fighters’ names come up to fight Floyd Mayweather, and I said, ‘Andre Berto has three losses, Amir Khan has three losses. Andre Berto is a two-time world champion, Amir Khan is a two-time world champion.’ It doesn’t matter who I face, they’re still going to try to say this is not the guy. When I beat this guy they’re going to say this isn’t the guy.
“I beat everybody. Right now the top guys in boxing are (Manny) Pacquiao, Canelo (Alvarez), (Miguel) Cotto, and of course I faced all three. And we know what the results were.”
Mayweather was reminded that following the greatest promotion in the history of boxing that led up to his disappointing fight against Pacquiao in May, there has been little buzz for his under-promoted finale with several thousand tickets still unsold and many on social media saying they do not want to pay $75 to watch him fight Berto on pay-per-view, last fight or not.
“I just try to stay positive and keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best,” said Mayweather, who is guaranteed a reported $32 million for his fight with Berto, but will likely make a good bit more than that from other revenue streams. “You live and you learn.”
Mayweather said he will not miss the limelight, and looks forward to spending time with his four kids and just hanging out. “I’m just ready to see somebody else at the top. I’ve done it all, I’ve made hundreds of millions in the sport. I broke so many records I don’t even know which ones I broke,” he said. “The ultimate goal is to find someone who can break my records.
“I know Andre Berto’s biggest (previous) payday was $2 million, but I said he should make $4 million. I think that’s great for him.”
When he vacates the title of top fighter in the world upon his pending retirement, Mayweather was asked who would become the heir apparent to the pound-for-pound throne? His answer was a bit surprising.
“We don’t know. We’ll have to see. Probably Manny Pacquiao,” he said. “We can’t just take that away from him because he lost to me. I would say Manny Pacquiao.
“Manny’s a hell of a fighter, one of the best fighters I’ve faced in my career.”
No comments:
Post a Comment