Mayweather
said he respects Ali’s great career and the things he did outside the
ring. But he said he believes he has done as much in boxing as the
legendary former heavyweight champion ever did, without the losses that
Ali suffered in his career.
“He
called himself The Greatest and I call myself TBE (The Best Ever),”
Mayweather said. “I’m pretty sure I’ll get criticized for what I said,
but I could care less. I could care less about the backlash.”
Mayweather
had earlier said that he was better than both Ali and Sugar Ray
Robinson, pointing to his 47-0 record as proof. He also said he would
never have lost to a fighter like Leon Spinks, who beat an aging Ali in
1978 after having just seven pro fights.
“I
just look at Ali’s career when he fought Leon Spinks and lost to a
fighter with seven fights,” Mayweather said. “There were some other
fights he lost and he’s still known as The Greatest because that’s what
he put out there. It is what it is.”
A
little more than a week before his megafight with Manny Pacquiao,
Mayweather seemed relaxed on a conference call where he talked about his
career and the man he will face in the ring May 2. He refused to say
anything bad about Pacquiao, and said he was treating the richest fight
ever as just another fight.
“I
know it’s the biggest fight in boxing history but I can’t approach it
like that,” Mayweather said. “I’m never going to put any unnecessary
pressure on myself. I like to approach the fight like he’s a fighter
who’s extremely talented. But my thing is to just be Floyd Mayweather.”
That
has worked for Mayweather his entire career, though most boxing
historians would disagree with his own view of his place in boxing’s
historical hierarchy. That includes the current heavyweight champion,
Wladimir Klitschko, who told a group of reporters in New York on Tuesday
that maybe Mayweather shouldn’t be so boastful.
“I
think probably, I heard this comment from Mayweather that he’s better
than Ali or greater than Ali,” Klitschko said. “I think people call the
king the king, not the king (who says) ‘I’m the king.’ So people make
others somebody that he is or that he’s not. So that’s people’s
opinions.”
While
Mayweather’s place in history may be in debate, there’s no debate that
he will make the biggest purse ever against Pacquiao. Depending on
pay-per-view sales — which reportedly have been strong for a fight still
10 days away — he could earn as much as $180 million for the
welterweight title bout.
That
prompted a question Wednesday about whether the free-spending
Mayweather — who owns a fleet of expensive cars, a private jet and
several mansions — worries about losing all his money after he retires.
“I’m blessed, I made some good investments,” Mayweather said. “If I wanted to retire today I could.”
Mayweather
credited what he called a brilliant game plan for reaching his goal of
becoming the first fighters to ever make a nine figure paycheck in one
night. But he said he has changed in recent years, toning down his act
and putting aside the Pretty Boy and Money May personas he used to help
him sell previous pay-per-view fights.
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This fight needs no selling, and Mayweather has been subdued at every public appearance.
“It
took a game plan for me going out there to win and me speaking out with
a very loud voice and having a lot of personality,” he said. “But as
you get older you mature. You’ve done trash talking for 17 or 18 years,
look at me, what I’ve done. I don’t have to do all of that. I did all
that loud talking and everything to get to this point.”
That includes speaking badly about Freddie Roach, who has tried to cast Mayweather as the bad guy in this fight promotion.
“He’s
making it basically a god against devil kind of thing, but he doesn’t
have to get in there and fight,” Mayweather said. “He’s entitled to say
what he wants to say, but the fighters aren’t speaking like that and it
comes down to the two fighters.”
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