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Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather Jr made their Grand Arrivals to Las Vegas yesterday and fielded questions from the media.
Floyd Mayweather:
“When I beat him [Mosley], they are going to say he is old. All these fighters get the belts that I gave up. When you are bigger than the sport, belts don’t mean anything. He needs a belt…A belt means something to him.”
On breaking records:
“All I can do is hope for the best. There is no limit to what we can do. The sky is not even the limit. If they did say a fight is going to do 700,000 homes, it will do something like 1.4 million. We can never predict a certain number. The ultimate goal is to always break records.”
On USADA Drug Testing:
“There are all these athletes out there cheating. I am clean and pure. I know I am a clean athlete. I didn’t start taking vitamins until I was 30, so I know I am a clean athlete.
“You see so many different fighters going into comas and dying. All fighters are taking is a urine test. From what I hear, enhancement drugs are making these fighters punch harder and all it is doing is hurting the sport.
“I want to be able to separate the average from the good and from the great. I want to separate the ordinary from the extraordinary.”
On the success of 24/7:
“I truly believe that we have so many different characters. My father, when he is in the boxing gym, is ‘Floyd Joy.’ My uncle is ‘The Black Mamba.’ We have children that are characters. And of course, myself, I am leading the pack.
“So many different personalities and so many people inside the gym and outside the gym. We have fun, but we know when to turn it on and when to turn it off.
“This is something that we talked about for a long time. Going in depth and behind the scenes, and showing things that no one had ever shown about a fighter. We talked about this back in the 90s.
“I think that in my household, when I am with my family, we are always positive and thankful for what we have. As far as the world right now, people love to watch controversy. Any show that is really controversial. I think I am versatile. I am very controversial, but when I get home, I am Floyd Mayweather and to my children, I am just dad.”
On his team:
“Our whole circle has changed totally. The only two people that are still here are me and you (to Leonard Ellerbe). Mainly the guys that are with me now are the guys I grew up with (in Grand Rapids, MI).
“I have Rafael Garcia. He does a tremendous job. You get what you pay for in life. You want your hands to be wrapped by the best so you have no hand problems, you get Rafael Garcia. If you want to make tremendous money, you hire the best to make you the best deals. Simple as that.”
Shane Mosley:
“This is what makes Sugar Shane Mosley; being able to fight, being able to box, and being ready mentally.
“I can box too. I have boxed guys I was supposed to punch out. This is what makes me Sugar Shane. Being able to box, being able to slip and slide, being able to do everything.
“Every time I fight, I’m looking to knock the guy out. I don’t think I am going to spend the whole fight trying to outbox him. I am going to do everything Sugar Shane is supposed to do.
“Every fight has its own significance. This fight would be a great win. Beating Floyd would be a big feather in my cap.”
On Floyd Mayweather:
“He brings a lot of mouth and we’ll see what this mouth is about. He had to fight somebody if he wanted to be considered the best.
“It’s not really what Floyd says or believes; it’s about what I believe. I see where he has slipped and I see some things where his body is beginning to go. But he doesn’t see that.
“He has great defense. He’s a great fighter. That’s why we are looking at each other May 1. I am happy he accepted this challenge.”
On his love of boxing:
“I’m always doing something. I’m never really that far away from the gym. Even when I retire, I’ll probably never be far from the gym. I will be sparring. I can’t get away from the gym.
“It depends on how you train. That’s the most important part of the picture.
On the scuffle in the ring following Mayweather vs. Marquez:
“You guys seem to forget, I am part of Golden Boy Promotions. That’s why I was in the ring. The reason why I said something was because I was called over and I was welcomed into the conversation.”
On trash-talking:
“Floyd says a lot of things that are sometimes out of line. I guess right now we are enemies. A lot of times when people say something that’s true it hurts. But then when they say something that isn’t true, it just rolls off your shoulder.
“When they say those different things and I know they’re not the truth, I can’t change their mind. I know the truth.”
On past losses:
“The fight game is really a mental game. People don’t realize that. It’s not really that physical. I think mentally, at that point in my career I wasn’t on top of my game mentally.”
