Floyd "Money" Mayweather has always been the epitome of braggadocio, particularly in interviews leading up to one of his fights. This past Tuesday, in an interview leading up to his fight against Shane Mosley, Mayweather took the money out of his mouth and stuck his foot in it.
"I don't care what fighter you're going to name, I'm the best," Mayweather said.
Throw a name at me and I'll break his stats down. Whatever they've done I've done it quicker, with no losses."
When no name was offered for Mayweather to debate, being "Money", he carried on the debate with himself as everyone observed.
"I take my hat off to Sugar Ray Robinson, and Muhammad Ali, and Sugar Ray Leonard, all the legendary champions. But I gave the sport of boxing my whole life to be the best, and I feel I earned the right to say that I’m the best fighter that ever lived. And I proved myself and I think that they say that women and men lie, but my numbers don’t lie."
It got better, or worse depending on your perspective when Mayweather focused on Ali and his 1978 loss to Leon Spinks in what was Spinks eighth professional fight:
"Leon Spinks with seven wins beat you?"
Cue thunderbolt from up above to strike Mayweather for blasphemy.
Yes Ali lost to the young Spinks, in a fight that took place when he was 36. However, he gave Spinks a lesson in the rematch as he won by unanimous decision to become champ for the third time.
This kind of mouth work is exemplary of the kind of stuff that makes Mayweather so reviled. That and tossing money everywhere to show how it meant nothing to him. Although said practice has since mysteriously ended since the IRS put "Money" in his place.
It confounds how he becomes so annoyed by detractors and always feels the need to defend his legacy. Do not get this man started on the fact that boxing writers chose Manny Paqcuiao as the "Fighter of the Decade" over him. Mayweather will counter with his record of 40 wins and zero defeats.
The fact remains that Mayweather's fights are snoozefests. In his most recent fight against Juan Manuel Marquez, Mayweather bullied his smaller opponent for 12 BORING rounds. If he was "The Greatest" there would be great fights on his record.
In the aforementioned Marquez match, our Engineer (hardly a Mayweather fan) fell asleep during the later rounds. He only woke when our Fireman (a big fan of Mayweather) would shout praises of Mayweather's speed.
It would be unfair to expect "Money" to stand in the middle of the ring and slug it out with "Sugar" Shane. He is not that type of boxer, and he would get killed. He is a boxer. A boxer, always in shape, and always working on his craft. And another facet of Mayweather that is ALWAYS in shape is his tongue.
"There’s a blue print in how to beat Shane. If you have five losses, there’s a remedy and code in how to beat you. There’s no code or remedy on how to beat Floyd Mayweather. I’m here to clean up the sport of boxing. We’re not cheating over here. We want to separate the ordinary from the good, and great. And I’m a great one, because I never used no drug enhancement drugs, and all those fighters in this time and different athletes are cheating. If you have to cheat to win, I don’t that’s cool at all. How you going to call yourself an all time great if you cheat?"
The last bit about performance-enhancing drugs was a nice verbal body-shot at Mosley. In 2003 Mosley went before a grand jury during the BALCO hearings and testified of how he "inadvertently" took EPO, a banned substance provided by BALCO founder Victor Conte. Mosley said he did not know what he was taking.
Duped into doping?
Everyone will be watching Saturday's fight with a curious eye. If Mayweather loses, we can finally put to rest hopes of seeing him take on Pac-Man in a mega-fight. If he wins in his customary style of banking rounds he can hardly expect anyone to laud more accolades on him. After all, shouldn't "The Greatest" continue to vanquish all who dare challenge him?
At the moment it would seem "Money" is trapped by his mouth. Appropriate.
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