LAS VEGAS (AP) — The clock is ticking on Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s career.
He claims his fight Saturday night with huge underdog Andre Berto will
be his last, and he will leave boxing undefeated and very rich.
Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. watches during a news conference, Wednesday,
Sept. 9, 2015, in Las Vegas. Mayweather is scheduled to defend his WBC
and WBA Super World welterweight titles against Andre Berto on Saturday.
Mayweather hasn't always been pretty to watch, though that didn't stop
4.6 million people from buying his fight with Manny Pacquiao. A
defensive wizard, he fights just enough to win, even if it leaves boxing
fans wanting more.
Still, he had some memorable moments on his way to wealth
and fame. Here are a few: MAYWEATHER AND 50 CENT: HBO created the "24/7"
show for Mayweather's fight with Oscar De La Hoya, and it didn't take
long for him to steal the show. In the first episode Mayweather is shown
with his entourage getting a haircut in his Las Vegas mansion. Through a
doorway comes rapper 50 Cent, riding a Segway. "He's the villain in rap
music," Mayweather said. "I'm the villain in boxing." Mayweather and 50
Cent would later split, with the rapper mocking Mayweather for
allegedly not being able to read.
WHO BEATS WOMEN? It was early in
Mayweather's career when he met Diego Corrales in a clash of two
unbeaten boxers. Corrales was facing jail time for beating his pregnant
wife and Mayweather vowed to beat him "just like he beat that woman."
Mayweather won the fight, knocking down Corrales five times in one of
his best performances. But Mayweather would have his own trouble keeping
his hands off women, finally serving two months in a Las Vegas jail in
2011 for beating the mother of his children.
NO APOLOGIZING IN RING: Victor Ortiz had
just been penalized for a head butt in the fourth round of his September
2011 fight with Mayweather, and he wanted to apologize. Mayweather was
good with that, but when Ortiz hugged him one last time after action had
already resumed, Mayweather unleashed a left and right that put Ortiz
on the canvas. Ortiz was counted out, and Mayweather got his only
knockout win in the last eight years.
CINCO DE MAYWEATHER: Mayweather played the
villain against De La Hoya all the way into the ring of their 2007
fight, drawing boos from De La Hoya's Latino fans by wearing shorts with
the red, white and green colors of the Mexican flag and a white
sombrero into the ring against the Golden Boy. The act worked, with
Mayweather winning the fight and beginning his career as a pay-per-view
money machine.
WRONG DRINK: Technically, this wasn't a
Mayweather moment but it was a Mayweather fight. Juan Manuel Marquez was
the opponent in September 2009, and the HBO cameras zeroed in on him
while he was drinking his own urine in training. "I've done it the last
five or six fights with good results," Marquez said. The results weren't
good against Mayweather, who dominated the fight on his way to an easy
decision win. "That's filth, man, filth," trainer Roger Mayweather said
of the training drink of choice.
WRONG BUTTON: The week of his 2011 fight
with Miguel Cotto, Mayweather met with a handful of writers to discuss
the bout. One set him off with a question about not fighting Pacquiao,
and Mayweather stood ranting and raving for the better part of 10
minutes about how Pacquiao used steroids and didn't deserve the fight.
"Are you an American?" he asked the writer. "I'm an American and I don't
want to see him taking back all that money to another country."
MONEY MAY: He built a persona on money,
and has made plenty of it. Mayweather and Pacquiao combined for the
richest fight ever, a bout that reportedly made Mayweather some $220
million, though this week he claimed it was more like $300 million.
After he beat Pacquiao, Mayweather finished off his press conference and
stopped on the way out to show two reporters his down payment for the
night. In his hand was a check with his name on it for $100 million.
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