By David Mayo, The Grand Rapids Press
LAS VEGAS -- From a school where his daughter received a scholastic award Thursday, Floyd Mayweather took time to give reporters some instruction of his own, on precisely what constitutes a Hall of Famer.
He excluded one Shane Mosley, his opponent next week in a fight with the potential to be a welterweight classic, although Mayweather’s potential classics traditionally devolve into either one-way beatdowns or boxing clinics.
He also questioned the credentials of one Manny Pacquiao, the man he might have fought in the first half of this year, if not for that drug-testing snafu.
Ludicrous as it seems, that’s Mayweather’s stance, and the Grand Rapids native is sticking to it -- at least for eight more days, until, if all goes according to plan, he beats Mosley for his 41st win, then declares what a great future Hall of Famer he just defeated.
Predictable, isn’t it?
Once again, Mayweather brought up the steroid issue in his unending, droning effort to discredit Mosley and damage his opponent’s brain without actually punching it.
“I can’t see how a guy like Mosley can call himself great, or how Mosley can call himself a future Hall of Famer, when we don’t know how long he was taking those enhancement drugs. This is something that we don’t know,” Mayweather said.
Of course, Mosley, who never tested positive for steroids, although he did use them in 2003, agreed to random blood and urine testing administered by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in order to fight Mayweather, and has tested clean each time.
Pacquiao never tested positive for steroids either, and there is absolutely no evidence he ever used them, save for speculation by people named Mayweather.
Yet Mayweather discredited Pacquiao’s Hall of Fame credentials both on the basis of past failings -- a disputed win and disputed draw with Juan Manuel Marquez, whom Mayweather dominated, a loss to Erik Morales, and a couple of early-career knockout losses -- and his own camp’s steroid suspicions, which he views as undenied rather than unconfirmed.
“That’s not for me to put him in the Hall of Fame,” Mayweather said. “All I’m saying is, if you’re an athlete, take the test. That’s all I’ve got to say. If you’re a clean athlete, take the test. That’s all I’m saying. That’s all I’ve got to say. If you’re a clean athlete, take the test. Show the world. You know what? I’m a natural. Take the test, that’s all I’ve got to say. USADA can meet you at any time. Take the test.”
Did we mention that’s all he’s got to say?
Soon, we can get down to the business of two of Earth’s three best welterweights throwing down with one another.
In the handful of days until then, Mayweather will toss around the usual stream of invectives, and while the general public might not warm up to such vitriol, these are fighters -- not sweetiepies, like, say, NFL quarterbacks.
So the venom spews and the targets are clear.
Primary target, Mosley.
Secondary target, Pacquiao.
Beyond the steroid issue, Mayweather said he thought Mosley disrespected Jack Mosley on this week’s HBO “24/7” episode by explaining he fired his father for a lack of focus.
Anyone who has followed the Mayweather family saga, feel free to insert punch line here.
He also discounted Pacquiao’s recognition as Fighter of the Decade, a title Mayweather might have won if he fought more than once in the last two years, based largely on the aforementioned disputed win and non-wins.
“So I’m trying to find out what it really is,” Mayweather said.
It really is eight days until resolution, filled with banter about why Mayweather doesn’t like all manner of things, including the “Who R U Picking?” fight theme.
“There’s no remedy on how to beat me yet,” he said. “So the thing is this: For everyone to try to solve the problem, it’s like a difficult math problem that can’t no one solve. No one can solve it. So the ultimate goal is to try to solve the problem. How to beat Floyd Mayweather, that’s the ultimate goal.”
E-mail David Mayo: dmayo@grpress.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/David_Mayo
Source: mlive.com
No comments:
Post a Comment