By Jeff Powell, DailyMail.co.uk
The main attraction of the weekend in this city where the only unacceptable sin is to run out of hard cash is a man who goes by the name of Money.
How appropriate. How unambiguous. The name of the game here is Money and that is what Floyd Mayweather Jr calls himself.
How simple. How blunt.
No confusion there. Money - millions of dollars of it - is what he and Sugar Shane Mosley are fighting for in one of the world’s biggest casinos.
Not for a world championship belt, because Mayweather will not part with any of his money to pay the WBA their fee for sanctioning the fight.
Not principally for the glory, because Mosley is past his prime at 38 and the vexed issue of who is the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet will not be resolved unless Mayweather gets into the ring with Manny Pacquiao.
The Money Man versus the Pacman is the fight the whole world really wants to see, but for the moment we will have to make do with this one on offer in the MGM Grand Garden.
No real hardship there. Although Mayweather-Mosley would have been a humdinger four or five years ago, there is still enough mileage in the Sugar Man for them to put on a show which will outsell any of the starry cabaret acts in town tonight, our own songstress Petula Clark included.
Not that packing the 16,000-seat arena is the main point of the exercise. The real target audience are the pay-per-view television subscribers.
That is where the numbers stack up for the enlightment of a wider public which finds it hard to understand how today’s top boxers can be paid seven-or eight-figure purses.
Mosley is guaranteed $7million in return for driving his ageing body into his first fight since he knocked out Antonio Margarito more than a year ago. Mayweather, five years the younger, is calculating on banking $40m.
Yes, say it slowly, forty million dollars. Now that is serious money.
For him to achieve that, the HBO network will need to sell this event to 1.5 million households in America at $54.95 (£36) each.
To the irritation of his critics, that is eminently achievable.
Love him for the slick skills which make him one of the two best prizefighters in the world, or hate him for bragging about it, Mayweather keeps confounding all those who doubt his capacity for pulling in the public.
The proof is in the ratings for his last six fights. Between them they have generated 5.5 million buys worth a total of $292m.
This one could be the most lucrative yet. Richard Schaefer, chief executive of Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy promotions - in which Mosley is also a shareholder - says: ‘My goal is four million homes.’
Extravagant though that ambition may be, there is evidence of sufficient public interest to break records for a non-heavyweight fight.
Not least because a televised clash between two Americans who are household names is now a rarity.
There have been more than 100 million hits on the websites for this fight, with no fewer than 750,000 fans responding to the invitation to make a prediction.
Those polls put Mayweather marginally in the lead with 51 per cent of the vote, with much of his backing coming from the big 2010cities. Mosley has been boosted to 49 per cent by the Hispanic and west coast communities.
This polarisation is driven in part by what this electorate would like to see happen. Mayweather attracts the boxing connoisseurs with his high technical ability. Ricky Hatton, who was knocked out by Mr Money, and Joe Calzaghe are among notable members of that fraternity expected at ringside.
Others resent his arrogance, which reached hitherto uncharted heights this week when he rated himself greater than Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Robinson.
Even when the entertainment value of his fights is questioned because of his concentration on an almost impregnable defence, he said: ‘It’s not my fault that the fights are one-sided. I just happen to be one of the few athletes in the world - like Michael Jordan - who has a God-given talent superior to all the others. It was me who made the world pay attention to the smaller fighters and it’s me who is keeping boxing going.’
Pacquaio might have something to say about that, once he finishes campaigning for a seat in the Philippines Congress. His day in this election season is on May 10.
Meanwhile, if Mayweather wants to improve his pound-for-pound claims he needs to make a more emphatic statement than usual.
Just doing enough to extend his 40-fight unbeaten record, which is his wont, will not convert the doubters who accuse him of hand-picking older or smaller opponents since he moved up to welterweight.
Of his practice of counter punching from behind that immaculate defence, he says: ‘It’s not good to take punches. If I’d had a bunch of wars I probably wouldn’t be here this week.’
So it is likely that Mosley will have to make the running. Despite the odds - he is the 3-1 underdog, Mayweather the 1-4 favourite - and the controversy about his past use of steroids he does look to be in remarkably good condition.
Mosley insists that the fabled hand speed which won him five titles in three weight divisions = only a couple fewer than Mayweather on both counts - is back.
Mayweather is likely to box with typical caution and patience. That should see the Money Man through the 12 rounds to victory on points and safely on his way to the bank to make another huge deposit.
Source: dailymail.co.uk
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