Interview: Boxing great Floyd Mayweather

By Ben Dirs

Mayweather is a world champion at four different weights

Interviewing Floyd Mayweather is, I suspect, much like it must have been interviewing Muhammad Ali - when Ali was five.

Several times during our chat, I can hear him, mobile phone hanging by his side, crowing to members of his coterie about his latest withering reply.

And then I'm left hanging ("Floyd? Hello Floyd?..."), wondering if he's remembered I'm still on the line or if he's wandered off to find something more interesting to do instead.

Only once do I gain his undivided attention, when, playing my trump card, I mention Ricky Hatton - and Mayweather explodes into a child-like tantrum.

"Ricky Hatton ain't nuthin' but a fat man," spits Floyd. "I'm gonna punch him in his beer belly when I see him - little punk."

It's the journalistic equivalent of big game fishing - dangle your line long enough and you're bound to land a couple of beauties in the end.

My legacy will be what it is now - I'm the best ever, I'm the Don Floyd Mayweather

On Saturday, Mayweather meets Oscar de la Hoya in Las Vegas for what could be the richest fight in boxing history. Mayweather, funnily enough, thinks he's going to win.

"Oscar de la Hoya is gonna be an easy fight, I'm gonna cook Oscar de la Hoya, I'm gonna snowball him, I'm gonna crush him.

"I don't respect his fight game. It's gonna be a toe-to-toe battle, a war. Hopefully he can withstand it for 12 rounds - but I don't think he can.

"He's gonna get the same as all 37 of my opponents got - a well-whupped ass."

Mayweather, a world champion at four different weights, has, how best to put it, a bit of a 'beef' with De la Hoya. It's easy to see why.

De la Hoya will receive �15m for his efforts at the MGM Grand, to Mayweather's �6m. De la Hoya gets the biggest cut because, well, he's the Golden Boy.

De la Hoya and wife Millie Corretjer play golf. Mayweather doesn't...

As boxer and promoter, De la Hoya, a six-weight world champion, has amassed a personal fortune in the region of �75m. He also has a pop-star wife and child.

Mayweather, while hardly a pauper, has never generated money like De la Hoya and lacks his rival's crossover appeal.

Perhaps more riling, while De la Hoya's family life seems all very I Love Lucy, Mayweather's is strictly Jerry Springer.

All of which makes the 'bling', the Bentleys and the trash talk perfectly understandable: "Look at me! Made it! On top of the world!"

While Mayweather lacks Ali's wit and charm, there is no denying that in another era his lavish talent and coruscating rants would have made him a superstar.

It is Mayweather's misfortune to be the world's best pound-for-pound boxer at a time when the sport is on its knees in America.

Ali once opined, "It's hard being humble when you're as great as I am", and Mayweather's lack of attention only makes him shout louder.

"Sugar Ray Leonard got beaten by a lightweight in Roberto Duran. When Sugar Ray Robinson fought for the light heavyweight title, he got stopped. Muhammad Ali got beaten by Leon Spinks.

"Can't nobody beat me. From light middleweight down, I run the fight game. Put all of them in the ring with me on one night and I'll beat all their asses.

"My legacy will be what it is now - I'm the best ever, I'm the Don. It is what it is, baby."

Mayweather, still only 30, says he will retire after his encounter with De la Hoya. Perhaps he's worn himself out trying to justify his greatness.