By Tim Dahlberg, AP Sports Columnist
LAS VEGAS — The entourage was down to a manageable level, if only because there's just so many people you can fit in a shower room. Floyd Mayweather Jr. left the rest outside, with a massive security-type stationed at the door just to make sure everyone got the message.
If anyone deserved a hot shower, it was the hardest working man in boxing. Mayweather may some day lose a fight, but it won't be because he comes in out of shape.
On this day, just blocks from the Las Vegas Strip, that meant a half-hour straight of hard sparring, followed by another half-hour on the heavy bag and then some work on the speed bag. Then there were sit-ups to do, mitts to pound and, finally, rope to jump.
His date with Shane Mosley was drawing nearer. Mayweather's work was intense, and so was his focus.
One of the entourage stepped in to get the shower running. Before he got clean, though, Mayweather came clean.
It is, he says, mostly an act.
That foul-mouthed, money-tossing, mansion-loving guy who entertains weekly on HBO's "24/7?" Well, someone has to play the villain, and it pays awfully well.
"The character I portray, sometimes people think that's what I am," Mayweather said. "It's not. Floyd Mayweather is my name, the guy called Money Mayweather is just a character."
Oh, yeah?
"I'm not at home throwing money around," Mayweather insisted. "I'm at my house with my children. The rest of it is all entertainment. It's all business."
Some of it, anyway. A few minutes later, Mayweather was talking about his NBA playoff bets, and how he had won about $30,000 gambling the night before. He's legendary in this city's nightclubs for spreading the cash around, and he's got his own customized armored car to drive when he has to go to the bank.
And most homebodies don't need bodyguards with massive biceps seven of them on this day to shield them against foes both real and imagined. They don't get mentioned outside courtrooms as possible police targets in a skating rink shooting investigation.
Then again, most fighters don't do conference calls with boxing writers from their daughter's school, like Mayweather did a few days ago.
"My daughter's getting an award today," he said. "She's like the No. 1 kid in her school."
If the lines between what's real and what's not are fuzzy, well, that's just Mayweather. Family man, would-be thug, boxer, helper of the homeless, he juggles all his roles with ease.
One minute he's humble. The next he's the greatest ever.
"Muhammad Ali was one hell of a fighter, but Floyd Mayweather is the best," he said. "Sugar Ray Robinson was one hell of a fighter, but Floyd Mayweather is the best."
Mostly, though, he's just a fighter. He was literally born into the sport and it permeates his entire being.
In the gym with him are his father and uncle, both former fighters and both trainers. Running around are small children, including one slick boxer he nicknamed "Cash Flow."
The bodyguards patrol the parking lot and guard the front door, but inside it's organized chaos. About 50 people gather around the ring to cheer Mayweather on as he takes on a sparring partner in a fight that never seems to end.
It's good preparation for Mosley, who could be one of Mayweather's toughest opponents ever when they meet next Saturday at the MGM Grand hotel arena. Oddsmakers still like Mayweather to win, but he's going to be in the ring against a fighter who has the skills and the pedigree to more than hold his own.
"Shane Mosley is a solid welterweight," Mayweather says. "But he's a fighter who always worries about landing one big shot. I worry about being smart. We're two totally different fighters."
This wasn't the fight Mayweather was supposed to be in this spring. He and Manny Pacquiao were all set to meet in a megafight in March until Mayweather's insistence on Olympic-style drug testing caused the bout to fall apart.
That Mosley would be the opponent instead is ironic because he was linked to the BALCO scandal, but both fighters have for the first time undergone random blood and urine tests from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. Depending on how much Mosley has left at the age of 38, the fight has the potential to be competitive if nothing else.
Mayweather doesn't seem to be overly concerned. He's won all 40 of his professional fights and, though his defensive style may not please a lot of boxing fans, he's discovered that he can fight the way he wants to and still make millions.
If that means he has to play the role of a villain, then so be it. By now he has the role down, and he's awfully good at it.
The real performance, though, comes next Saturday night. And that will be no act.
Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlberg(at)ap.org
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: usatoday.com
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