01 May,2015 08:18 AM IST | | AFP
Floyd Mayweather Jr insisted that his blockbuster fight against Manny Pacquiao is about boxing and business, not angels and demons, as the rivals went eyeball-to-eyeball at their final pre-fight press conference
Floyd Mayweather
Las Vegas: Floyd Mayweather Jr insisted that his blockbuster fight against Manny Pacquiao is about boxing and business, not angels and demons, as the rivals went eyeball-to-eyeball at their final pre-fight press conference.
Floyd Mayweather
Pacquiao goes into Saturday's bout that has the boxing world buzzing trailing a mantle of humanitarian deeds. "I want to inspire," Pacquiao said. But Mayweather won't be playing the devil, despite a history that includes two months in jail in 2012 for an assault on an ex-girlfriend in front of two of their children.
Big earner
"I am a realist," said Mayweather, the 38-year-old American who has parlayed a perfect 47-0 ring record into a reign as the highest paid sportsman on the planet.
"This fight is not good versus evil. It is one fighter who is at the top and another."
It was Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach who first billed the fight as good against evil, citing Mayweather's record of domestic violence. "For the first time in my life with Manny Pacquiao, this is the first fighter he hasn't liked. I can tell," Roach said earlier this month.
Mayweather, an energetic trash-talker in his younger days, has often courted controversy. But Mayweather, who said this week he expects a payday of USD 200 million for this fight alone, says none of that will matter when he steps in the ring.
"I believe in my skills. I believe I will be victorious," said Mayweather, who puts his World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association welterweight belts on the line against Pacquiao.
