Floyd Mayweather Press Conference

Boxing superstar and 10-Time World Champion Floyd "Money" Mayweather(45-0, 26 KOs) held court at a jam-packed press conference at MGM Grand today to formally discuss his 147-pound welterweight world title unification bout against the dangerous, hard-hitting Marcos "El Chino" Maidana (34-3, 31 KOs) in the main event of "THE MOMENT" on Saturday, May 3 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena live on SHOWTIME PPV®.

Addressing media members hours before the start of Saturday night's "TOE TO TOE: Canelo vs. Angulo"event on SHOWTIME PPV, Mayweather touched on a variety of subjects, including Maidana, the upcoming matchup with the Argentine slugger, his future and more. Also speaking were Leonard Ellerbe, CEO of Mayweather Promotions, Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions and Stephen Espinoza, Executive Vice President and General Manager, SHOWTIME SPORTS.

FLOYD MAYWEATHER, 10-Time World Champion, Five Division World Champion and WBC Welterweight

"Maidana is a young, strong and tough competitor. He's a guy that I can't overlook. You can never take any fighter for granted because anything can happen.

"I believe in dedicating myself to my craft. This is my 18th year in the sport. I've had a strong run and we've got three more fights after this one. I truly believe in taking one fight at a time.

"This was my first week out [in training camp] and we had a tremendous week.

"Hopefully, some day I help some of this up-and-coming talent and promote them. Boxing is growing and is here to stay.

"I'm not scared of any opponent. I fight who I want to fight.

"Tonight is another marvelous show. Canelo is one hell of a fighter and Angulo is too. It's going to be nonstop action. This is a fight not to miss.

"Canelo's a different breed. A lot of people think because of the way I made Canelo look, they're going to be able to do the same thing, but that's not true. He's a strong fighter.

"Tonight's fight is different than my fight with Canelo back in September. They [Canelo and Angulo] have great styles and styles make fights. This fight is tailor made to be a war.

"I fight myself. I don't fight to break Ali's record or Sugar Ray Robinson's record. I fight to please myself. I know in my heart where I'm rated. I didn't fight in Ali's era. This is my era.

"I don't know who my three next opponents will be. A lot of people ask me that. You want to fight me? Earn it.

"I'm a strong critic of myself. I'm really hard on myself. Even with the Canelo fight and the fight before that fight, I wasn't happy with my performance. I haven't reached my peak yet. I know I can do better.

"I've been in the sport of boxing for a long time, but I haven't been able to bring my 'A-game' totally out. I've beaten fighters with my 'C-Game' and with my 'D-Game,' but I haven't been able to beat anybody with my 'A-Game.'

"I'm a firm believer that before you can go anywhere, you have to conquer the level that you are at, just like young kids do it today with video games, they have to finish one level to go to the next one. Conquer one level at the time, and only then you'll get where you want to go to.

"I always say that I'm a clean athlete and that I should be randomly tested anytime, urine and blood.

"I have only seen Maidana's last fight against Broner. I've only watched the first six or seven rounds. I've also seen highlights of other fights, but not many. He's a good fighter; I'm not taking him for granted. I don't take anybody for granted."



ROBERT GARCIA, Maidana's Trainer

"In 1998, Floyd and I won a title in the same year in the same weight division. Sixteen years later, I'm training my fighters to fight him and he's still a champion. That is hard to believe.

"Our guy Maidana earned this fight. I want to thank Mayweather for taking this fight.

"There were other names out there, but Mayweather is a boxing person and he made the right choice. I think Maidana earned the right to fight Floyd. He's going to come out and do his best. Just like he did against Adrien Broner.

"Broner was supposed to be the next great thing. What Maidana did to him was something that no one believed could happen. It takes hard work and dedication.

"It takes a great fighter that listens to what his coaches tell him to do and we're going to come out and do our best to please everyone with a great fight and come out with a win. Everyone has a time and it could be this time. No one has a blueprint because no one has ever beaten Floyd."

RICHARD SCHAEFER, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions

"Floyd Mayweather did it again. He picked the most dangerous opponent he could have.

"It's going to be a thrilling fight. Maidana is ready and he's going to come to try to knock out Mayweather.

"The tickets went on sale this morning at 10 a.m. There are 16,000 seats [in the arena] and 14,000 were sold with over $12 million in the bank already."

LEONARD ELLERBE, CEO of Mayweather Promotions

"Maidana's a tremendous fighter. He can crack with either hand and Floyd is going to have to be at his best to beat him on May 3.

[On the Mayweather Promotions opponent poll] "Floyd has over 11 million followers across different platforms, all of those were taken under consideration.

"On the first tweet he put out, there were over 50,000 comments on the first two hours. My team and I went through all of the responses, and Maidana was an overwhelming favorite.

"Maidana earned the right to fight Floyd and May 3 is going to be a great night for boxing."

STEPHEN ESPINOZA, Executive Vice President & General Manager, SHOWTIME SPORTS

"SHOWTIME Sports has become the home of the most compelling fights and the biggest events in the sport of boxing. And there are no bigger events than those featuring Floyd Mayweather.

"We are proud to be part of the May 3rd event and look forward to another incredible night at the fights."



# # #

"THE MOMENT: Mayweather vs. Maidana," a 12-round world championship unification bout for Mayweather and Maidana's respective 147-pound titles, is promoted by Mayweather Promotions and Golden Boy Promotions and sponsored by Corona, O'Reilly Auto Parts and AT&T. The event will be produced and distributed live by SHOWTIME PPV (9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT) and is the third fight of a lucrative six-fight deal with Showtime Networks Inc.

Tickets priced at $1,500, $1,000, $750, $550 and $350, not including applicable service charges and taxes are on sale now. Tickets are limited to eight (8) per person with a limit of two (2) at the $350 price range. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000. Tickets also are available for purchase atwww.mgmgrand.com or www.ticketmaster.com.


http://v2journal.com/29/post/2014/03/floyd-mayweather-press-conference1.html

What a crock of sh1t.

Completely agree with this article.

Roll on May 3rd. Terrific fight and the most deadly out there for Floyd at the moment

You are joking right MM8?

Kind of wish they had of had this on the video montage...

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=10HSRqFuCYM

Haha of course Hammer.

For me, he should fight Bradley, Garcia or Maidana as they are the most deserving at the moment around that weight class.

Maybe even Khan if ae talk about "styles making fights'.

the only thing i do agree with, is that Maidana does deserve to fight him.

Has been on a good run of form and beat Floyd Junior Junior in his last fight..

All those you mentioned deserve it more then there's Lara at 154lbs who deserves a shot. If it's not Lara or Pacquiao/Bradley next I'll be very disappointed and it will be undefendable matchmaking.

I don't understand how people mention lara when people rip him for alverez! Both there best wins are trout and they both beat him with canelo doing it first, Lara is slightly overrated IMO he got caught by angulo to many times and Floyd will be given no credit if he beats him! He needs to fight Bradley/pacman winner which is impossible! If not he might fight Martinez cotto winner

Lara is the number one contender at light middleweight so it's a very reasonable fight to expect to see, he's the champion in two divisions so does have two number one contenders to choose.

Is Floyd on playback ? He says the same cr@p every fight, the press should just stand up and leave soon as he gets the mic. "I'm dedicated to my craft, hard work and dedication"

He only watched first six rounds of Broner fight , what a load of sh1t
Cheers Rodders

I agree Canelo is lightly regarded for some reason here, but I'd say I don't think it's completely unjustified - until two years ago, his best win was against the wrong Hatton. Since then he sneaked a debatable decision to Trout, slapped around Josesito, and called up Mosley... To be fair to him, since then he's generally gone looking for big fights, but for whatever reason (absolutely no fault of his), hadnt found them. Last night was a good performance from him, and he might yet prove a superstar/ATG

Lara has his flaws, but I don't think any of them are technical... Seems to have that annoying habit of fighting to his opponents level. I don't think he's shown what he can really do, and would supprise a lot of people vs Floyd.

Diamond in the rough wrote:I don't understand how people mention lara when people rip him for alverez!

Honestly, who rips him for Alvarez? Maybe a vocal minority. But, for the most part, he gets big praise for that win. Rightfully so. The win looks even better now after how Alverez took Angulo apart on Saturday night. For me Alvarez and Lara are the clear 'best of the rest' at 154. Floyd has already dominated one. It would be nice if he could go and do the same to Lara now. I have no doubt he could. But, with Lara's lack of star power, the reward/risk ratio isn't great. I know one thing: Lara would be a far greater challenge than Maidana. Someone on here (can't remember who) said something that really put that fight into perspective for me: watch Maidana vs Alexander and then tell me that he has any chance against Floyd. The only impressive thing Floyd can do in that fight in KO him. A UD shutout/clinic does little for his rep.

Richard Schaefer must be the biggest creep in boxing. He has no shame.

Rodney wrote:Is Floyd on playback ? He says the same cr@p every fight, the press should just stand up and leave soon as he gets the mic. "I'm dedicated to my craft, hard work and dedication"

He either speaks in these well-worn soundbites or in a meandering stream of consciousness. He doesn't seem to know what he's trying to say most of the time. It's just words. Verbal diarrhoea.

Great boxer, but I wish he'd speak less.

Boxtthis wrote:

Diamond in the rough wrote:I don't understand how people mention lara when people rip him for alverez!

Honestly, who rips him for Alvarez? Maybe a vocal minority. But, for the most part, he gets big praise for that win. Rightfully so. The win looks even better now after how Alverez took Angulo apart on Saturday night. For me Alvarez and Lara are the clear 'best of the rest' at 154. Floyd has already dominated one. It would be nice if he could go and do the same to Lara now. I have no doubt he could. But, with Lara's lack of star power, the reward/risk ratio isn't great. I know one thing: Lara would be a far greater challenge than Maidana. Someone on here (can't remember who) said something that really put that fight into perspective for me: watch Maidana vs Alexander and then tell me that he has any chance against Floyd. The only impressive thing Floyd can do in that fight in KO him. A UD shutout/clinic does little for his rep.

Maidana was close to quitting boxing at that time, you can tell in his performance too. He had no motivation and you can tell by his body he was out of shape.

Dave boy Green and Bruce Finch didn't do much for Leonard's rep..

But I don't recall people moaning about it..

"I've been in the sport of boxing for a long time, but I haven't been able to bring my 'A-game' totally out. I've beaten fighters with my 'C-Game' and with my 'D-Game,' but I haven't been able to beat anybody with my 'A-Game.'

----------------------------



Fair play if he was able to say this whilst keeping a straight face..........there were 'A-game' fights out there when you mysteriously retired for a couple of years Floydy!!

Jmm's sloppy seconds and a poor Man's Mark Breland count as B-fights...In my book..

Of course they do.......

Dave green came after benitez, finch came after hearns, truss. I take your point and agree to an extent that mayweather gets judged by different standards. He'd probably get a bit more slack if he'd fought a hearns or a benitez... Of course they have to be there to fight and Alvarez was a step up.

Leonard is in my top 5...and he was scheduled to fight Stafford after Finch

Not sure there was any A-Game fights for him.

Pacman was probably a "B" fight for him....its just the fans wanted to see it so much it was hyped as an "A".

However, i feel Mayweather just boxes his head off all night without stressing too much.

Id say an 'A' game fight would be Lara or Martinez.

Lara due to his technical ability and Martinez due to size.

Nobody else comes close at all.

08/09 I'd call Manny an 'A' fight, speed power angles intensity and the ability to do it for 12 rounds.

10-1-1...

I've been an admirer of Lara for a while but even I'm not blind to the fact that he can fail to turn up at times and there's no guarantee that on the biggest night of his life, he phones it in.

On his day and on his own A-game, he gives Floyd a helluva fight but whilst when Floyd's been made to work, he finds a way to win you can't same the same about Lara or be confident that he'd step it up if required.

mobilemaster8 wrote:Not sure there was any A-Game fights for him.

Pacman was probably a "B" fight for him....its just the fans wanted to see it so much it was hyped as an "A".

Pound for pound numbers one and two in 2010 squaring off against each other. Also happened to be the two biggest stars and money spinners in the sport. Pacquiao coming off a sensational string of five fights across four weight classes beating Marquez, Diaz, De la Hoya, Hatton and Cotto in style (Marquez II very close and open to interpretation, but no robbery). Fans all over the shop analysing and comparing their respective wins and performances over Marquez, De la Hoya and Hatton. Not an 'A' fight?

Serious question, Mobile. What does make a fight an 'A' fight?

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:10-1-1...

Hahahahahaha

Darn it, can't remember why we established you'd never be able to use that phrase again?

Was it Bradley losing almost every round versus Pac but you saying all that mattered was what the judges said??